‘Not a terror act’: Four injured in Peshawar police station explosions

SSP operations believes an electrical short-circuit triggered the explosions.

PESHAWAR:

Three powerful explosions at the premises of the Gulbahar police station left four policemen injured in Peshawar, said CCPO Liaqat Ali.

“The initial investigations show that the cause of the blast was biogas which had accumulated in the sewerage line underneath the rooms. However, further investigation is under way,” he added.

The police station is also an office for the Bomb Disposal Squad. “The explosion was caused due to an electrical  short-circuit, but we are still investigating the matter,” said SSP operations Ejaz Khan.

“There was no smell that would lead us to believe it could be a dynamite,” said DCO Sairaj Khan, rejecting the claims of a bomb blast.

As three explosions occurred intermittently, fire and smoke engulfed the premises. Two rooms at the police station, where explosives were stored, were considerably damaged, while the rest of the building remained partially damaged.

However, police sources said the explosion was caused when officials of the bomb disposal unit were defusing a device. They added that equipment worth millions of rupees   which included detectors for explosives, scanning devices and other similar mechanisms   was also destroyed in the explosion.

The injured, Feroz Shah, Jehangir, Israel and Nisar are all officials of the Bomb Disposal Squad. “They have received minor injuries, and will be discharged shortly,” said Jamil Shah media officer of the Lady Reading Hospital.



Published in The Express Tribune, April 26^th, 2011.