An exploding trend: Blast destroys main gate of lawyer’s house in Jamrud

Four IEDs, as many grenades discovered and defused in Landikotal.

JAMRUD: The main gate of a lawyer’s house was destroyed when an explosive planted by unidentified militants near the building exploded around midnight on Tuesday in Godar area of Jamrud, Khyber Agency.

Ali Sher, an official of the political administration, said lawyer Amjad Ali was a former candidate for the National Assembly seat from Khyber Agency. Sher said Amjad’s main gate was completely destroyed and a portion of the boundary wall damaged, however, no loss of life was reported.

Immediately after the incident, locals started firing into the air, creating more panic, shared Sher. He added four kilogrammes of explosives were used in the blast.

Majid Khan, Amjad’s brother, told The Express Tribune he was in Hayatabad, Peshawar when he was told of the incident. According to Majid, he did not know anyone who would have wanted to scare them; they had not received any threats.

Another official of the political administration wishing to remain unnamed said such blasts have become common in Jamrud of late and are oft tied to extortion demands.

Khasadar officials cordoned off the area after the blast and started a search operation. However, no one was arrested till the filing of this report.

Bombs defused

Levies officials recovered four improvised explosive devices (IED) and as many hand grenades from Sadokhel, Landikotal on Wednesday.

Abbas Ali, a levies line officer, said they were informed by locals about a canister found in a ditch near Sadokhel after which they rushed to the site with the bomb disposal unit (BDU).

BDU officials recovered and defused four IEDs and four grenades from the container. According to Abbas, the experts believed the bombs had been abandoned for some time.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 27^th, 2014.