Explosion averted: Bomb defused outside CTD office

KARACHI:

A locally made bomb was defused outside the office of the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of Sindh Police on Monday.

The bomb was found inside a shopping bag in the parking lot outside CTD's Civil Lines office in District South. The bomb disposal squad was summoned and their personnel managed to defuse it without any casualties.

"The bomb was thrown in the parking zone, which is really alarming," said CTD in-charge Mazhar Mashwani. "But the good news is that it was not a large bomb and was found on time and defused easily." The CTD officials suspected that someone working at a nearby under-construction building may have thrown it.

The incident has raised some questions about the level of security at the CTD office, which was recently declared as a sub-jail after the force gained powers to detain suspects for 90 days.  In November 2010, the building was attacked by a suicide bomber, who rammed an explosives-laden vehicle, killing at least 18 people.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 24^th, 2015.