February 4, 2003	Tuesday	Zul Hijjah 2,1423

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KARACHI, Feb 3: One person was killed and three people were injured on Monday when a bomb exploded at the parking lot of a shopping mall near the headquarters of Pakistan State Oil in Clifton.

The blast, which occurred at 11:30am, damaged at least 12 other motorcycles, parked in the area besides shattering the windowpanes of the Clifton Galleria Shopping Mall and PSO House.

The man, killed in the blast, was identified as Karim Dad, resident of railway city colony, who collected parking fees and was an employee of the contractor given the contract for charged-parking in the area.

The injured were identified as a passerby Fayyaz, head constable Ejaz and a sweeper Afzal Masih. The dead and injured were taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where the condition of the injured was stated to be out of danger.

Afzal said: “I was cleaning the windowpanes at the ground floor of the shopping mall when the deafening explosion took place and I was thrown to the ground. I thought it was a blast in the pole-mounted transformer (PMT). Suddenly windowpanes started breaking apart and I lost my consciousness. When I came to, I was at the hospital.”

Earlier on Dec 19 last year, a powerful explosion razed a house in Korangi, killing four people, who were believed to be religious extremists. The police believed that one of the most wanted alleged terrorists Asif Ramzi, who belonged to the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, was among the dead.

On Dec 5, an explosion destroyed the rear portion of the honorary consulate for Macedonia in Defence Housing Authority. The police are still investigating into the incident. Two men and a woman were also found with their throat slit on the premises of the consulate following the blast.

The Monday’s blast near the PSO House, occurred some 250 yards from the residence of SP Farooq Awan, who had played a significant role in apprehending alleged terrorists and was a key investigator in many high-profile cases. However, the police officials believed the blast was not aimed at attacking Farooq’s residence.

A senior police official said the explosion might be linked with the murder case of former managing director of the PSO Shaukat Raza, in which the trial against the chief of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, Akram Lahori and others is in the final stage.

The locally-made bomb weighed 1.5-2kg and contained a compound of highly explosive chemicals, including sulphur and ammonia, Aga Hussain Shah, in-charge of the Bomb Disposal Squad told Dawn.

He said: “We believe the bomb was planted in a motorcycle KCM-8017, or KAB-309 as both were completely damaged. One of them flew into the air due to the impact of the explosion and landed 26 feet away from where it was parked. The parking attendant had lifted the bike to park it nearer its adjoining motorcycle to make more space for other vehicles. In the process, the two bikes collided, which led to the blast. The attendant was thrown some 79 feet to hit the wall of PSO building and was instantly killed. Twelve other motorcycles caught fire and were partially damaged.

The blast was captured by cameras recently installed by the PSO to monitor movements outside the building. The film was shown to the investigators, who were of the opinion that the man who had parked the motorcycle was not identifiable. The film was being closely examined to find clues.

A senior police official, who requested not to be named, said: “We have found Khalid Mehmood, the owner of the motorcycle (KCM-8017), who told the police that he had parked his bike there and did not know what happened.”

The official said police were looking for the owner of other motorcycle KAB-309, Wali Mohammad. “We suspect the chassis numbers were tampered with and we have sought expert opinion of forensic experts, who would provide us their report in a day or two.”