Sindh

In the nick of time: Child playing with grenade averts disaster

The police defuse 85 grenades found in a drum near the Super Highway.

Express July 06, 2011

KARACHI:

The police foiled a terrorist attack when they seized a drum full of hand grenades on Wednesday evening.

The drum was found in some bushes at Super Highway near New Sabzi Mandi within Sachal police limits.

There is a flood survivors' camp located very close to where the drum was found. A child reportedly found a grenade lying near the drum and was playing with it. Other sources claim that the child tried to sell the grenade for Rs5 but one of his elders saw him and informed the police.

On the other hand, the police claim they found the drum on their own. SHO Shabbir Mustafa told The Express Tribune that he was patrolling the area when he found an unused grenade next to the drum.

"When I first saw the drum I was very surprised," he said. "What is this doing here? I thought. When I got closer I saw the grenade and realised the drum must have more grenades inside." He said that he immediately informed his superiors and the bomb disposal squad (BDS).

A heavy contingent of the police and BDS officials arrived and defused 85 hand grenades. They had been stored in the drum and covered up with tar. BDS's Mohammad Khizar said that all the grenades were Russian. They were unsealed and in the original packets.

New Sabzi Mandi is nearly half a kilometre away from where the drum was found, while Madina Colony - with a population of at least 2,000 people - lies just a kilometre away.

The police suspect that the grenades were recently transported to the city to be used in terrorist attacks. "Right now it appears that terrorists were trying to smuggle the grenades into the city but they stored them there because of security checks," SHO Mustafa explained. "They probably planned to wait till night to move them."

Police have registered an FIR, No. 442/11, on behalf of SHO Inspector Ghulam Mustafa against unidentified culprits. The officer said that the defused hand grenades are in police custody and would be produced in court today (Thursday).

Published in The Express Tribune, July 7^th, 2011.

COMMENTS (10)

azaz | 13 years ago | Reply None of you noticed..russian made grenades

Saeed | 13 years ago | Reply This responsibility lies on all the governments of Pakistan (previous and Specially this one), They fail to develop the whole country. They failed to provide uniformity to every one. Now the difference of status is too much. One cannot send his kids to school and others send their kids to school outside Pakistan. Moral values and quality education is not given importance. When we talk about difficult earning in front of kids, they start thinking of that from their childhood. In my childhood, a very good school at its time used to collect old books from passing students gives to the new students who have already submitted their books to school. It was quality education in subsidized cost. And now schools regularly change their course to feed their specific book stalls which pay good amount. Now the education is expensive and no quality. Do we need anything else other than cheap and quality education? We need to learn how to be a responsible citizen. Instead of Humty dumty, Machhlee kaa bachhaa and many other new poems which doesn't give any morals to students. Do you think we need to make Islamic studies part of our daily life? Why there are two different groups 1-Islamic extremists and 2-Anti Islamic group. It is because we are not studying Islam properly. We need to keep everyone in one wavelength. And avoid making two extreme poles. Need to learn how to love our differences in culture instead of disliking each other. May Allah bless Pakistan with PEACE. Ameen

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how come? | 13 years ago | Reply If the military general can sell nucelar tech for US 3M, the kid can sell the grenade for Rs 5. Pakistan Zindabad.

muhammad jawed | 13 years ago | Reply it's a pity that our society is not documented .we have no idea of karachi's demographics.does anyone have any idea of how many sindhis migrated to karachi permanently after the floods? how many pakhtuns migrated to karachi in the last 10 years after 9/11? don't talk about the census as we all know how that was conducted this year in karachi,it's figures are all fabricated and we all know why.but still if some academic has done any demographic study or something,it would be good to know as if these flood refugees are still living in karachi one year on ,i don't think they'll go back now.

tagg | 13 years ago | Reply the kid had no idea what it was... he might have thought it to be scrap/junk so selling it would earn him some junk food!!

Yasar | 13 years ago | Reply @sumeet: Cant you read? Kid tried to sell for five rupees. He had no idea of value of grenade.

Xyz | 13 years ago | Reply sumeet you must be mentally impaired to have come up with a comment like that- obviously the child had no idea what the grenade was

sumeet | 13 years ago | Reply a hand grenade only rs 5.OMG.in india you can not buy a samosa with that money.even in diwali,the fire crackers cost too much.it's no surprise why there is so much bombing and killing going on where u can find a deadly greanade cheaper than a cup of tea or bread.

Talha | 13 years ago | Reply Hand grenade for Rs5. What a bargain? I could have had a bombastic Shabbe Raat with this kind of explosives.

Menon | 13 years ago | Reply CIA-RAW-Mossad must hae bruied it in Karachi!

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