Lyari Cheel Chowk: Catastrophe averted after 11kg bomb defused

Residents and shopkeepers were evacuated from the area while BDS officials worked.

KARACHI: A major disaster was averted when law enforcement personnel located and then managed to defuse an 11-kilogramme (kg) improvised explosive device (IED) near Cheel Chowk in Lyari on Friday.

According to police officials, the search for the bomb began after Rangers personnel deployed at Cheel Chowk noticed wires lying near their mobile. Bomb disposal squad (BDS) members were called in, and they along with with a team of policemen later searched the area surrounding Cheel Chowk, and ended up finding the wires coming from a concrete block placed alongside the footpath outside a nearby shop.

BDS experts said the 11-kg bomb was made locally. They added that seven kg of the bomb comprised explosive material, while the remaining was made up of ball bearings, nuts and bolts, blades and seven batteries.



The ball bearings on the 11kg improvised device weighed around 3 kg. PHOTOS: RASHID AJMERI/EXPRESS

A senior BDS expert told The Express Tribune that the device was remote-controlled, and it had a circuit and a detonator attached with it. The whole package was packed inside a cement block.

“All the ball bearings were located on one side of the bomb. If it had exploded, these ball bearings would have caused massive damages on this side,” observed the official.

BDS experts claimed that a similar IED bomb was found in North Nazimabad some time ago. The North Nazimabad bomb had nine batteries attached to it.

Panic gripped the area and residents and shopkeepers were evacuated before the bomb disposal squad defused the device. The police believed that a major tragedy was averted as the bomb was placed near LPG shops.

Lyari SP Sarfaraz Nawaz said that they could not point out which militant group was behind the foiled attempt. However, he observed that the Rangers might be a probable target. “Or it might just be that the culprits wanted to create panic in the area,” said Nawaz.



The officer said that a case has been registered against unidentified persons under the Anti Terrorism Act and the Explosives Act, and further investigation was underway.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 22^nd, 2012.