Foiled terror bid: Car laden with 125kg of explosives seized

A suspect was allegedly picked up, released after cops learnt he is related to an SSP.

ISLAMABAD:

The police foiled a potential terrorist incident in the capital after they seized a car rigged with explosives late on Friday night.

According to the police, the car was discovered from a house in Phulgran, a village on Islamabad’s outskirts located around four kilometres east of Bhara Kahu.

Assistant Inspector General of Police Operations Sultan Azam Temuri said the car had 125kg of explosives strapped inside the two driver’s side doors and inside the CNG cylinder.

“The explosives were ready to be blown up with a remote control and could have affected people and buildings within a 200-yard radius of the car,” said an officer at the Bhara Kahu Police Station.

Acting on a tip-off, police personnel raided a house in the Adil Heights residential area of Phulgran at around 11.30pm on Friday, he said.

The officer said the car’s owner, identified as Hammad Hussain, was sitting inside the vehicle — which was parked in the porch of the house — when the raid was conducted. He managed to escape through the back door as the police tried to enter the house.

The Bhara Kahu police impounded the vehicle and the Bomb Disposal Squad dismantled the explosives, including detonators, wires and ball bearings, from the car.

The car is a Japanese-made Suzuki Alto with registration number HK-522. The police are trying to trace its registration details, said the officer.

A case has been registered against Hussain, a Phulgran Village resident, under the Explosives Act.

He and other suspects were arrested and taken in to police custody for questioning on Friday. However, after conflicting reports emerged that Hussain is allegedly the brother of a senior superintendent of the Punjab police, he has not been seen since.

The police said investigations were underway to determine where the explosives wired to the car were bought from and how they were transported to the capital territory.

According to the police, a laptop was also recovered from the house where the car was seized. It has been sent to the Federal Investigation Agency’s National Response Centre for Cyber Crimes for further analysis.

“Important government buildings and sensitive installations could have been possible targets,” said a senior police official requesting anonymity. “The car bomb could have been used to cause a major terrorist incident in Islamabad.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 1^st, 2013.