Assailants hurl grenade at imambargah

Luckily, the grenade did not explode

KARACHI: Panic gripped North Nazimabad locality after unidentified motorcyclists hurled a hand grenade, apparently intending to target an imambargah on Tuesday evening.

The hand grenade was found along the wall of Imambargah Saqa-e-Sakina in Block-Q of North Nazimabad, within the limits of Sharae Noor Jahan police station. Luckily it did not explode. The police and experts from bomb disposal squad immediately reached the site.



The police officials and witnesses said that the hand grenade was hurled by at least two armed men riding a motorcycle. According to Sharae Noor Jahan police station SHO Abdul Ghaffar the assailants intended to target the imambargah. He said that the militant outfits might be behind the incident, while the further investigation is under way.

Various Shia community-based organisations, including Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM) and Shia Ulema Council, condemned the attack and demanded the government and law enforcement agencies to conduct a grand operation against militant organisations operating in the country, despite imposition of the ban.



"The fresh wave of sectarian violence has once again started in Karachi, as two of our community members were killed last week and the terrorists have now targeted the imambargah," said MWM spokesperson. He added that a future course of plan is being devised to make a strategy to deal with such happenings in future.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 1^st, 2017.