Rangers come under attack in three Sindh cities

Two personnel martyred, one injured as paramilitary force targeted in Ghotki, Karachi and Larkana

HYDERABAD/ KARACHI: Two Rangers personnel were martyred and another injured in three separate terrorist attacks on the paramilitary force in Ghotki, Karachi and Larkana on Friday.

In the first attack, a Rangers vehicle was attacked with an improvised explosive device (IED) near a meat shop on Railway Station Road in Ghotki, leaving two personnel and a citizen martyred. Two others were also injured in the attack.

“The assailants detonated an IED,” SSP Farrukh Lanjar told reporters.Rangers and police cordoned off the neighbourhood following the attack. The injured were shifted to the Taluka Hospital Ghotki and later referred to Rahimyar Khan.

The martyred personnel have been identified as Zahoor Ahmed and Fayyaz Ahmed. The civilian, who was passing near the vehicle, was a local resident identified as Ghulam Mustafa Bhayo, a retired Railways employee.

DSP Abdul Qadir Chachar told the media that the personnel had parked the vehicle, a double cabin, on the road to buy something. The official added that blast also damaged the vehicle’s rear side leaving multiple pellet holes.

A resident, who was having his motorcycle repaired at a shop on the other side of the road, told reporters that a few pellets also hit his motorbike.

The police were unable to share any conclusive detail about the nature of the IED. A bomb disposal squad (BDS) team which was called from Sukkur district met an accident en route to Ghotki.

A sub inspector of the BDS, Meenhon Khan, lost his life while six policemen were injured in the accident which occurred on the motorway near the town of Mahesro.

The injured, Abdul Jabbar Abbassi, Falak Sher, Qurban Phulpoto, Suhail Shaikh, Lal Khan and Gulfam Rind, were shifted to Taluka Hospital Ghotki.

However, some of the injured personnel managed to visit the site and collected samples of the explosive material.

The funeral prayers of the two Rangers personnel were offered at the paramilitary force’s headquarters in Ghotki. Zahoor’s body was sent to Bahawalnagar in Punjab for burial and Fayyaz Ahmed’s body to Saeedabad in Matiari, Sindh.

In Karachi, a man riding a motorcycle hurled a grenade at an Ehsaas programme centre in the Liaquatabad area apparently targeting the Rangers personnel deployed there.

The grenade injured nine people who were rushed to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where one of them succumbed to his injuries. A Rangers soldier, Munawwar, was also among the injured.

Later, a low-intensity blast also carried out outside a public school in Larkana where a Rangers vehicle was parked. However, no casualty resulted from the attack.

A shadowy group, the Sindhudesh Revolutionary Army, has claimed the attacks.

The attacks drew countrywide condemnation. Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed his sorrow over the loss of lives and sought an immediate investigation into the attacks.

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah directed the provincial police chief to submit a report while PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari condemned the attacks.

Leaders of the PTI, the MQM-P, the Grand Democratic Alliance and other political parties also condemned the attacks and expressed solidarity with the martyrs’ families.

With input from Reuters