Police have uncovered an entire factory that had been disassembling live artillery shells in the suburban village of Wadpaga.
Hundreds of artillery shells were recovered from the factory, which falls in the jurisdiction area of Chamkani police station.
On Saturday morning, a small explosion occurred in the factory building in which a man’s hands was blown off. The victim was identified as Umar Khan, a resident of Kamar Khel Bara. He was rushed to the Lady Reading Hospital by his father, Haleem Gul.
Suspicions arose when Haleem told policemen that his son was handling a scrapped mortar shell when it suddenly exploded. It was initially considered an explosion of scrap metal imported from Afghanistan, which is usually kept in storage along the main Ring Road in the city.
Police personnel were sent to inspect the site of the explosion. They reported that hundreds of old shells had been found in the building, along with several hundred kilogrammes of explosives.
“We immediately arrested both the injured and his father from the hospital with the help of the bomb disposal squad (BDS) and raided the house from where another man Bilal, who is also Umer’s son, was arrested,” said DSP Fazal-e-Wahid while talking to The Express Tribune.
He added that hundreds of old, but live shells, had been stored under beds in the house. The police team also found 10 bags full of explosives weighing around 1,000 kg.
Umar later died at the hospital. His brother Bilal is said to be a police employee. “Bilal works at the Kot (arms store) in Police Line,” the DSP added.
BDS head Shafqat Malik said the rented house was a factory involved in the supply of military grade explosives for the manufacture of bombs. According to the DSP, the quantity of explosives was enough to assemble dozens of homemade bombs.
“They were taking the explosives out of the artillery shells by means of so-called ‘processing’. They could be members of terrorist groups or merely suppliers of the explosives, which are in great demand,” Malik said, adding that no one would suspect a policeman and his family of running such a factory inside their house, which is how they successfully operated for a long time until they were accidently discovered by the police.
Haleem and his son Bilal, who were arrested, are said to members of a militant organisation called ‘Amer Bil Maroof’, which operates from Bara, Khyber Agency. Hundreds of posters of the militant group were found in their house.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 4th, 2012.
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