Police defuse suicide vest, arrest bomber near Peshawar ring road

Bomber was 12-13 years of age who claimed that he was made a hostage and explosives were forcefully strapped onto him.

PESHAWAR:
Sarband police arrested a man and have removed a suicide vest from another in Khan Lar, a small road which links the Ring Road with Khyber Agency on Tuesday evening.

Officials said that a man was travelling from Bara in Khyber Agency to Peshawar on his motorbike on Tuesday evening when a boy of 12-13 years of age hailed him for a lift into the city. As they neared the suburban area of Sarband, they were stopped at a checkpost for routine check up. As they frisked the men, police discovered that one of them was wearing a suicide vest.

ASI Mushtaq of the Sarband police station said that they immediately arrested the driver of the motorcycle and had surrounded the passenger.

“We arrested the man driving the bike and the other man was asked to sit on ground in a hands up position but he is now lying on the ground probably because of the fear,” he said. Mushtaq added that bomb disposal squad reached the area and they diffused the vest.


Express News correspondent Jahangir Shahzad added that when they two were stopped, the passenger yelled out to nearby security forces, warning them of approaching him since he had explosives strapped to him. At this point, the driver of the motorcycle threw up his hands saying that it was not his fault and the passenger had been made a hostage.

Police then arrested the driver, and pinned down the passenger. Bomb disposal squad managed to successfully remove and diffuse the vest after toiling for an hour. Officials said that the jacket contained five to six kilogrammes of explosives along with at least two kilogrammes of ball bearings strategically placed in the anterior and posterior regions of the jacket.

Both suspects have been moved undisclosed locations.

Shahzad, added that the bomber seemed to be drugged and when media teams reached the spot, they found the boy lying still on the ground.
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