Potentially fatal: ANP leader evades bomb attack

Dr Ziauddin says that the Taliban had warned him to quit the ANP or face dire consequences.

KARACHI:

The Bomb Disposal Squad managed to defuse a bomb planted outside the residence of a Awami National Party leader in Orangi Town late Friday night.

The bomb was found after the police was informed about a suspicious bag lying outside the leader’s residence in Frontier Morr, Orangi Town. Police officials reached the site and evacuated the residents of nearby homes to avoid any untoward incidents. Later, the bomb disposal squad was summoned to defuse the bomb.

According to the BDS experts, the bomb was concealed in a sweets box and contained around 2.5 kilogrammes of explosive material. They added that it was attached to a remote controlled device.

Meanwhile, ANP leaders, condemning the incident, termed it a failure on the part of the government and law enforcement agencies as several of their leaders have so far been killed in bomb blasts and targeted killings in the city. The deceased ANP leaders include Syed Ameer Sardar, Saeed Ahmed Khan, Hanif Advocate and Lal Darwesh.

This time, the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan men had reportedly threatened the ANP’s district west general secretary, Dr Ziauddin, who is also a former union council nazim of the area. They had demanded Rs1 million in extortion money from him. “They even told me to quit the ANP and warned of dire consequences if I did not comply,” said Dr Ziauddin.”They had called to inform me about the bomb and said that this was only a warning.” Dr Ziauddin said that the criminals had warned that the next time, they would kill him without any warning.

The ANP spokesperson demanded the government and law enforcers to arrest the culprits.”Everyone knows that we are on the Taliban’s hit-list,” he said. “Despite this, the government is not providing us with proper security,” he lamented.

Meanwhile, police officials are trying to trace the culprits with the help of cell phone numbers of the criminals who had called to threaten Dr Ziauddin. No case was registered till the filing of this report.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 29^th, 2013.