Evidence may have been lost in Johar Town explosion

LAHORE:

Residents of the Board of Revenue (BoR) Society and passers-by from the area in Johar Town hit by an explosion on Wednesday expressed apprehensions about wastage of important evidence at the spot and the security arrangements made by the police.

The witnesses raised questions about evidence collection by the investigation agencies.

A local resident, Akbar Shah, pointed out while speaking to The Express Tribune that a lot of debris had flown to nearby streets after the explosion. It had also fallen on rooftops and terraces of nearby houses.

He claimed that children were seen roaming in front of police officials while carrying up to three feet long pieces of metal from the car that was used for the explosion.

He alleged that the investigators did not try to take into their custody such pieces of evidence.

A resident said every piece of evidence was case property and it was a standard practice to take extreme care in collecting them. The evidence helps the investigators solve the case and the prosecutors in pursuing it.

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However, children were seen playing with the pieces of the car in streets, he alleged.

Another resident of the housing society questioned the level of security, surveillance and checking in the province. He said it had been reported that the car that was used in the blast was carrying over 20kg of explosives.

Such a vehicle had reached a sensitive spot in a residential area that had been declared a sub-jail to detain a leader of a banned organisation, he said, adding that the area must be under watch of surveillance agencies.

It must have passed in front of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras of Punjab Safe Cities Authority (PSCA), he said.

He added that the incident appeared to be a failure of intelligence officials.

He said police set up pickets at a large number of spots in the city to check citizens but only the poor motorcyclists appeared to be their target. At the same time, their top officials presented such actions as measures to male the city safe from anti-social and criminal elements.

Earlier, Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Ghulam Mehmood Dogar said in a statement issued an hour after visiting the site that security arrangements across Punjab had been strengthened. Inspector General of Police Inam Ghani also said that more damage could not be inflicted in the attack because of the presence of a security checkpoint in the street.

CCPO Dogar also said some officials of Lahore police had been injured in the explosion but they had succeeded to foil the designs of the attackers, otherwise the loss could have been more serious.

He said the security of the city had been beefed up, while a sweep and search operation had been launched along with increased patrolling around Johar Town and other areas to create a sense of security among citizens.

The senior officers also visited the hospital to enquire after the health of the injured police personnel and citizens.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 24^th, 2021.