KARACHI, Oct 8: As violence in Karachi has acquired a new dimension with a surge in hand grenade attacks in recent years, police authorities acknowledge that the bombs being used are mostly of Russian or US origin and do not rule out a link between missing Nato containers and the sudden rise in such attacks.

Hand grenades use in armed clashes and as a threat in extortion activities, mainly in southern district, has emerged as a recent phenomenon in city violence, officials said.

Over the past few years, hundreds of containers meant for the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), a Nato-led mission fighting against militants in Afghanistan, have gone missing on their way from the port city to Kabul.

Forensic examination of the grenades showed that mainly two types — HE-36 and MK-II — were being used in the city, police investigators said.

“We have seen mainly the HE-36 hand grenades are used to terrify people by those involved in extortion activities,” said SP Raja Umer Khattab of the Special Investigation Unit (SIU), tasked with the investigation of both terrorism and extortion cases.

“In several grenade attacks, HE-36 was used because it creates smoke and a bang causing fear and panic. Grenades of this type usually do not cause a serious harm,” he added.

However, he said, other types of hand grenades such as MK-II and MK-II A1 could prove deadly.

Referring to the May 2011 grenade attack on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia consulate in Karachi, the SP said it was later found that the hand grenades were similar to the MK-II and MK-II A1 types.

His findings matched with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) report on the incident.

“We can say very safely that the recovered parts of the hand grenades used in the attack on the Saudi consulate in Karachi are similar to the family of MK-II and MK-II A1 hand grenades,” the FIA report mentioned.

Amid the increase in hand grenade use in clashes between armed groups, violence and as a source to harass people in extortion activities, the supply line of the bombs remained a challenge for law-enforcers as well as a question mark over their performance.

Police and Rangers claimed to have recovered a number of hand grenades during raids in recently-launched targeted operation in different parts of the city.

In July, the police had recovered 87 hand grenades concealed in a drum near flood relief camp situated along the superhighway near new Sabzi Mandi.

Though frequent killings came to a halt after the Supreme Court of Pakistan took a suo motu notice of the bloodshed in Karachi, hand grenade attacks were occasionally reported in different city districts.

Like SP Khattab, SP Fayyaz Khan of the Crime Investigation Department (CID) also agreed that the war-torn Afghanistan remained the major source of bomb supply. But he said they were also being smuggled from Iran into Pakistan.

“Explosive examination report may help determining the exact details of each hand grenade, but mostly we have found the bombs are of Russian origin,” he added.

The police authorities, however, did not rule out that the sudden surge in hand grenades use might have its links with the disappearance of Nato containers from the ports.

Additional IG Saud Mirza said: “I would not agree with the notion that only Afghanistan remains a source of its supply as there are some other sources as well. There is supply from sea route and by roads as well from different parts of the country. And definitely that Nato containers which are still missing can be another source for supply of this stuff.”

He agreed that the use of hand grenades in the city had increased to an alarming level but referred it as the result of 'growing stakes' of the criminals and their gangs.

“Putting a stop to such supply is the responsibility of different institutions including Customs, coast guards and other law-enforcement agencies. We keep in touch with them and often bring situation in their notice that led to several joint actions, which proved effective,” he said.