A scientist, Dr Zain Ebad, and his family escaped a bomb attack as a highly explosive hand grenade was delivered to his house on Thursday.
The bomb disposal squad (BDS) defused the device - a Russian hand grenade carrying 500 grammes of high explosives hidden in a tin container.
A young man posing as a delivery boy for the courier service handed Dr Ebad’s father the package, claiming it was an “Eid gift for Dr Zain Ebad”.
When Dr Ebad returned from work at the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research’s (PCSIR) laboratory that night, his father gave him the container and he immediately took it outside the house, the case’s inquiry officer, Sub-Inspector Siddiq Abbasi, told The Express Tribune.
Dr Ebad says that he knew something was amiss as soon as he saw the parcel was from a ‘Huzoor Buksh from Sanghar’ and was addressed to him with his cell phone number. Since he has no relatives in upper Sindh, he did not open the parcel, put the container in the nearest park and informed the police.
BDS experts managed to defuse the bomb which, they claim, was powerful enough to wreak havoc in a radius of about 100 meters. BDS experts say that the grenade would have exploded when the cover of the tin was lifted. There was just one bomb embedded in a layer of vegetables. “There is a wire attached to the cover of the tin container that is connected to the grenade’s pin,” a BDS expert explained. “As soon as the cover is lifted, and the pin yanked out, the bomb explodes.” They managed to stop the bomb from going off by cutting the tin open without removing its cover.
Dr Ebad’s brother is also a scientist at the PCSIR laboratory and lives with him. Investigators have no idea what the motive behind the attempted murder could be Dr Ebad claims that he has no enmity with anyone. Sub-Inspector Abbasi said that the police have registered an FIR, No. 523/11, under the Anti-Terrorism Act and are investigating the case.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 27th, 2011.
COMMENTS (6)
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Russian made? who is behind it?
As i was to go to court where my constitution petition was fixed for heaing on 24th August my old car was damaged and i had to go by publict transport.The respondent was the federation of pakistan.I had been receiving mysterios calls on my mobile before that.I suspect the (in) security agenies.
What if the package would have been from "a very dearest friend of Dr. Ebad" with his correct cell-phone number? ... i don't think it was that hard to do...
Moral: "Don't open any thing unless you get a phone confirmation from the claimant sending party"...
Quick thinking. Sharp mind.
Oh, thank God he and other innocent people weren't harmed. Everyone should be alert these days, with the rampant.chaos
Is the Dr. a nuclear scientist by chance? We've seen lots of Iranian nuclear scientists loose their lives in suspicious circumstances off late. The govt. of Iran has blamed western countries in each case. Could this be a case of an attempted assassination of a Pakistani nuclear scientist?