HYDERABAD: Three persons of a family were killed in a mysterious explosion and two others injured within the jurisdiction of Matiari police station on Tuesday.

The victims were identified as Nathu, his son Vishnu and daughter Tulsi. It is learnt that two persons were also injured, one of them was identified as Lachman.

There are conflicting accounts of the incident. After looking into different theories, Matiari SSP Amjad Shaikh said Nathu dealt in scraps. He got some articles on Tuesday and was apparently trying to dismantle or break them into pieces. This attempt caused the blast and since his children were sitting in close proximity of it, they also had fallen prey to it, the SSP said.

Reports said the deceased belonged to a nomad family who had been living on government land off the National Highway. People of various other communities have made the land their abode as well. Around 30 to 40 families are living there,

According to the SSP, some other family members of the deceased claimed that occupants of a car had thrown something towards their hut which caused the explosion. But the officer ruled out the claim. “There is no crater on the ground or signs of blackening of surface which, otherwise, indicates explosion usually,” he said.

He added that Nathu was an old scrap dealer and all aspects of the incident were being investigated. It was a small hut where two charpoys could hardly be placed, he added.

A local journalist said Nathu’s brother Radhu claimed that occupants of a vehicle had thrown explosive in their hut which had caused the explosion and subsequent killings.

DIG Sanaullah Abbasi visited teh spot and told Dawn that there were different probabilities which were being looked into. “Perhaps the deceased who dealt in scrap might have got hold of some explosives and that exploded in the hut,” he said. He did not agree with the claim that explosive had been thrown from a drive by vehicle on the National Highway. The highway was far away from the hut, he said and added that the land belonged to the provincial highway department.

“We are looking into different angles. We will not exclude the possibility of likely attack on the minority community as the deceased belonged to the scheduled caste and came from lowest income group. But these are all probabilities,” he said. He said the Matiari SSP would investigate the case.