No loss reported: Militants hurl grenade at school in Karachi

Security officials say the attack was only meant to create panic; leaflets recovered from the site

KARACHI:

Unidentified assailants lobbed a hand grenade outside a school in Gulshan-e-Iqbal during the early hours of Tuesday, setting off a deafening sound and scaring away parents and schoolchildren from the site.

The attack also created a sense of panic among law enforcement personnel who rushed to the blast site. No loss of life or damage to property was reported.

The incident occurred around 6:50am in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Block 7, a residential area, where a large number of private educational institutions are also located.

A few pamphlets were also recovered from the blast site, written in English and Urdu language, asking the law enforcement agencies to stop the execution of their comrades and warning civil society members to stop promoting a western agenda in the country.

The area, where the incident occurred, consists of two lanes where barbed wires, barriers and barricades were also erected besides establishment of Rangers makeshift check post at the corner of the lane, in order to protect the schoolchildren during the study timings.

However, the miscreants carried out their activity before the school timings giving the impression that it is just warning and government must stop the hangings of their accomplices.

The incident happened on the same day when two members of a banned organisation were to be hanged later in the day.

Following the incident, Rangers DG Major General Bilal Akbar, DIG East Muneer Sheikh, legislators of Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Deputy Commissioner East reached the crime scene.

The whole area was cordoned off by personnel of law enforcement agencies. The children, along with their parents, were still trying to reach their schools following the blast. However, most of the schools in the vicinity announced holiday as a precautionary measure.

While talking to the media at the crime scene, DIG Sheikh said militants just wanted to create panic in the surroundings as they have failed to challenge the LEAs directly.

“The militants used an improvised explosive device in their attack, which was without ball bearings and was made just to create high intensity sound,” he said.

“No specific institution was targeted,” the DIG claimed, adding that militants only intended to create panic in the area.

Deputy Commissioner East Agha Pervaiz, while talking to The Express Tribune, said “it is a wake-up call not only for the government but for the whole society”, adding that we have to save our future at any cost.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 4^th, 2015.