Supply unaffected: SSGC station attacked with IED in Karachi

KARACHI:

A sub-station of the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) in Karachi was partially damaged when a powerful IED exploded Monday evening.

The SSGC’s sub-station is located near the Qayyumabad flyover within the limits of Baloch Colony police station in Karachi. Extra contingents of law enforcers, including the Rangers and police, reached the site and cordoned off the area. Bomb disposal experts were summoned.

BD experts told The Express Tribune that about 200 grammes of highly explosive material was used in the bomb, adding that an improvised explosive device connected with the timer was used to detonate it.

DSP Altaf Hussain told The Express Tribune that the motive is unclear. Some reports suggested that the police had detained a suspect from the blast site; Hussain neither denied nor confirmed this.  An SSGC spokesman said that the supply of gas was not affected. Media manager of the SSGC Inayatullah Ismail said some unidentified miscreants threw a cracker which caused the blast.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 12^th, 2013.