Terror bid thwarted: Would-be suicide bomber slain in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: Security forces gunned down a would-be suicide bomber who was trying to sneak into an Imambargah in Amani Shah Colony during Friday prayers. Another attacker hurled a hand grenade at a Rangers vehicle parked near the Imambargah, indicating a two-pronged attack on the worship place in Hyderabad’s Latifabad Unit 11.

“One of the bombers hurled a hand grenade at a Rangers vehicle parked near the Imambargah while another tried to enter the premises but was shot dead,” said the Rangers in a statement.

A vest fitted with explosives was recovered from the slain militant. Bomb disposal squad defused the explosives, it said. One suspected suicide bomber was gunned down while another managed to escape, a spokesman for the Rangers said.

An FIR under sections 324, 353, 34 (PPC) and sections 3 and 4 of the Explosives Act and sections 6 and 7 of the ATA has been lodged at the Airport police station.

Meanwhile, it took two personnel of the BDS two hours to defuse the bomb. “They didn’t seem to be following the SOPs,” commented a BDS officer, who requested anonymity.

“Don’t know why they appeared to be in a hurry even though the bomb wasn’t going to blow like in the case of a device attached to a timer,” another BDS personnel, who also wanted anonymity, said.

According to them, both the BDS personnel who engaged in the exercise were supposed to wear explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) suits.

Among the two, Amanullah wore the EOD but his head was uncovered while the squad’s in-charge Ramzan Panhwar, wearing shalwar kameez, covered himself only in a bulletproof jacket and the suit’s helmet.

“Before we sat together [to remove explosive packs from the jacket], Amanullah had examined the bomb and with the help of a rope we removed the fuse from the vest,” Panhwar told The Express Tribune, arguing the SOPs were not violated.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 17^th, 2016.