Attack on Rangers post at Kati Pahari: Ex-policeman killed, many hurt in blasts

A cracker attack on
a Rangers post followed by a
remote-controlled bomb blast
near Kati Pahari on Saturday
killed a former policeman and
left more than a dozen others
including personnel of the
paramilitary force, policemen
and a reporter of a private TV
channel injured, officials said.
They suspected that some
motorcyclists hurled the cracker
at the Rangers post in the Kati
Pahari area that caused a huge
bang in the second half of the
day attracting residents, media
teams and law-enforcers — the
potential victims of a second
and much more powerful
explosion.
“Only 10 minutes after the
cracker blast, a bomb planted
near the Rangers post went off,”
said SP Orangi Town Chaudary
Asad Ali. “The cracker in fact did
not cause any injury or major
damage. It was the second
attack that caused injuries to
people including policemen,
Rangers personnel and residents
who had gathered there after
the cracker attack.”
Considering the past trend, he
said, the first attack seemed a
trap set to attract people —
mainly officials of the law-
enforcement agencies — close
to the bomb planted in a cement
block very close to the Rangers
post near Kati Pahari.
Following the bomb blast, fear
gripped the neighbourhood that
houses a number of roadside
shops, eateries and hundreds of
residential units. Ambulances
were seen rushing the injured to
a nearby private health facility as
well as to the Abbassi Shaheed
Hospital and Civil Hospital
Karachi.
The officials said that the victims
included five Rangers personnel
and three policemen who were
cordoning off the area after the
first explosion. They said at least
three of them who sustained
multiple and serious wounds
were shifted to operating
theatres for surgeries.
“One of the injured who was
brought here later died. He has
been identified as Mohammad
Yousuf in his 40s,” said an
official at the medico-legal
section of the Abbassi Shaheed
Hospital. He added that the
identity of the other victims had
not been ascertained so far.
About the injuries, he said the
victims suffered multiple
wounds, including wounds in
their limbs, abdomens and
chests, indicating that the bomb
also carried ball bearings.
The Orangi Town SP said the
deceased Mohammad Yousuf
was actually a former policeman
who had been dismissed from
service. He said he lived in the
area close to the Rangers post.
He came out of his home after
the first attack and was standing
among other people when the
bomb exploded, he added.
Among the victims also included
a CNBC Pakistan journalist,
Zainuddin, who was reporting
the news of the first attack, the
officer said. Most of the injured
were stable and released after
the initial treatment, he said.
“The cracker carried a 300
milligram explosive that caused
a huge noise,” said an official at
the Sindh police’s bomb
disposal unit that examined
both the blast sites.
“The second attack was carried
out through a locally-made and
remote-controlled IED
(improvised explosive device),
which was concealed in a
cement block just a few yards
from the Rangers post,” the
official said.
“The bomb weighed around two
kilograms,” he said.
The police investigators said it
was a little early to arrive at any
conclusion about ‘the group
behind the twin attacks’, but
taking into account past trend of
attacks they sounded very much
sure that the job was executed
by one of the banned militant
outfits.
“The expertise to develop such
kind of bomb and then conceal
in that way is enjoyed by banned
outfits that are associated with
the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan
one way or the other,” said Raja
Umer Khattab of the CID’s
counter-terrorism unit. “Their
training is different and they
very much hold the quite similar
skills. It will be a little early to
hold any particular group
responsible for the attacks but
definitely the job is carried out
by any of these banned groups,”
he said.