Police, Rangers arrest five suspects following rocket attacks near port

Woman, two men were injured in three consecutive rocket attacks on Wednesday.

KARACHI: The police and Rangers have detained five suspects in a search operation in the Musharraf Colony area of Mauripur.

The raid came after a woman and two men were injured in three consecutive rocket attacks in different parts of district South on Wednesday night. Unidentified militants fired three rockets, two of which hit sensitive installations.

The police said that the first rocket hit the wall of the Pakistan Navy complex in Lyari, the second one fell on the roof of a house in the Docks area while the third one hit a container in a terminal at Karachi Port.

Following the rocket attacks, the police and Rangers conducted a door-to-door search operation in Musharraf Colony area and apprehended around five suspected militants belonging to a militant outfit. The suspects were shifted to an undisclosed location for further questioning.

Though the police have yet to ascertain the location from where the rockets were fired but the officials suspect that the rockets were fired from district West. “The rockets had a range of three kilometres and were, most probably, fired from district West or Lyari River,” said City division SP Sheraz Nazeer, while talking to The Express Tribune. Police officials believed that no sensitive installation was the target of the attackers.

The rockets were fired generally to create panic, he said, adding that similar rockets were fired in the same pattern by unidentified culprits earlier in Garden, Civil Lines and Malir areas. “Once it is fired we cannot stop it,” said SP Nazir. “But we can only stop this by arresting the elements behind these activities.”

To avoid such incidents in the future, the police have started raids in key areas, such as Musharraf Colony, Sikandarabad, Sultanabad, Hijrat Colony, Shirin Jinnah Colony and Macchar Colony areas. The police are also waiting for the bomb disposal squad’s report. Meanwhile, the cases of the rocket attacks have been registered against unidentified persons and further investigations are underway.

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