Blast averted: Three home-made bombs found near army depot

Suspicious packages found near building housing military supplies, 15kg of explosive material defused.

RAWALPINDI:

Security agencies reportedly recovered three home-made bombs with live circuits from a roadside near Marir Chowk – not far from a military establishment.

The three Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), locally made in pressure cookers and connected through circuits with detonators, were pulled out from a sewerage point by army officials.

The bomb disposal experts of the army shifted the devices to some unspecified location for examination.

Once the IEDs were connected to the detonating devices, why did they not explode? To this question, officials said the devices were not carrying explosives in them. There was no word, however, on the exact nature of the devices.

Police said the devices were spotted by workers of the sewerage department who were carrying out maintenance work after the recent rains. The Civil Lines police were informed who, in turn, sought the army’s help in removing and defusing them.

Army and police vehicles cordoned off the area and the bomb detection and disposal squad of the army located the devices and pulled them out after removing the circuits.

Civil lines police said they had not been given any information about the nature of recoveries and that the investigations were being carried out by the army itself. However, the officials of Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said the army had only assisted in bomb disposal while the police were responsible for the recovery operation and the subsequent investigations.

No case had been registered in the Civil Lines police Station till the filing of this report.

There was also no word from either police or army on who might have planted the devices there. The place was only yards away from an army supply depot. However, the military official said, in case of any untoward incident, the public using the road could be the victim, possibly indicating the road was not frequented by any high official of the army.

“Rumours have it that the military had carried out an exercise to test the vigilance of the police and its response,” said a police official.

Police said they had apprehended a suspicious person from the scene who was later shifted to some unknown place for investigations.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 18th, 2011.