KARACHI, June 10: Soon after recovery of the vehicle, used in the Thursday's ambush on the convey of corps commander, Karachi, the law-enforcement agencies have launched a search operation in the Akhtar Colony and Mehmoodabad, detaining 11 suspects.
The Toyota Hi-Ace (JE-9255), which was used in the ambush, had been snatched at gunpoint from Mr Ghulam Rasool in Gulshan-i-Iqbal early on Thursday morning. Police also found a sub-machinegun, several empties of SMG and of G-3 rifle from the vehicle.
Besides, blood stains were also found in the recovered vehicle, which indicated that some of the assailants got injured in retaliatory fire from the convey, investigation officials said.
Shortly after recovery of the vehicle near Defence View township, police and other law-enforcement agencies launched a search operation in the adjoining localities of Akhtar Colony and Mehmoodabad, suspecting that the attackers might have some hideout in the area.
"We are combing the area to look for the suspects and so far we have picked up 11 people during the search," a senior police official, requesting anonymity, said. Investigators said that a man, who identified himself as Aslam, booked a vehicle for Keenjhar Lake for his family for Rs2,600, from the Al-Farid Transport in Liaquatabad.
The driver, Ghulam Rasool, and cleaner Bakhtiar, reached around 6am to the given address in Block-17, Federal B Area, from where three suspects boarded the vehicle. The suspects said that their family was at another place.
They took the vehicle to Safari Park, where another suspect, who alighted from a red car, boarded the vehicle and the car sped away. The suspect took the driver and cleaner at gunpoint and forced the driver to move towards Rufi Heights, where the suspects gave them sedative through injections.
The suspects dropped Bakhtiar at Rufi Heights and Ghulam Rasool at some distance and fled. Ghulam Rasool informed about the incident at a nearby ACLC police kiosk and the message about snatching of the vehicle was aired at around 7.18am.
Later, the suspects abandoned the vehicle in Phase-II, Defence View, where they fled in two cars, the investigators said. Meanwhile, timely action by a police personnel averted another disaster, when he picked up a small bag from the main Clifton Road and threw it into an open plot, where it exploded only damaging a portion of a wall.
The investigators told Dawn that the explosive was earlier placed near the main Clifton Road, but it failed to explode on time. Otherwise, according to the probable plan of the attackers, the first explosion was suppose to take place soon after the firing.
Shortly after, the police officials found another bag, which, when examined, turned out to be another explosive device weighing approximately 5kg, wrapped in a shopper. The investigators said the second bomb contained nails, nuts and bolts, besides iron rods, which would have worked as shrapnel at the time of detonation. These metal objects were meant for causing maximum injuries to the people.
The explosive device was attached with a cell phone, two batteries and crystal-like chemical. A call to cell phone would have detonated the bomb, the investigators said.
Due to a signal-jamming device installed in the army vehicles, the call could have not been made, which failed to trigger the bomb, they added. The explosive used in the device was of local nature, the police said. Army officials defused the bomb by cutting off the wires.
However, the investigators said that a call was made to the cell phone, which was found attached with the bomb, after it was defused. The number of the caller was noted down. Both the numbers were detected and some people were picked up for interrogation, they said.
SKETCHES: Meanwhile, with the assistance of eyewitnesses, the police have prepared sketches of six suspects, involved in the snatching of vehicle from Gulshan-i-Iqbal. The description of each of the six suspects was mentioned and their origin was shown as "Urdu." All the suspects were in their mid twenties to early thirties, it was learnt.
