By Imtiaz Ali

KARACHI: A roadside bomb blast hit a police bus, killing two commandos and injuring 17 others in the city’s Quaidabad area on Friday morning.

About 50 personnel of the Special Security Unit (SSU) were going to the Bilawal House, Clifton, for security duty when the bomb planted in a parked motorcycle exploded close to their bus on the main National Highway near Murghi Khana, Counter-Terrorism Department official Raja Umer Khattab said.

The banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack.

This was the second Taliban attack on SSU commandos in the same area. On Feb 13 last year, 13 policemen were killed and 50 others injured in a similar roadside bomb blast. Those commandos, too, were on their way to perform security duty at Bilawal House, residence of PPP Co-Chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari.

Umer Khattab said the SSU commandos were being targeted because they were highly trained and taking part in operations against terrorists in Karachi. They are ‘easy target’ as they travel on long route on a fixed time.

A Bomb Disposal Squad official said it was a home-made improvised explosive device and weighed about five kilograms. It was detonated by remote control. Nuts and bolts were used in the bomb to make it more lethal. The number of the injured was high because the blast hit the middle of the bus.

The motorcycle used in the blast belonged to a slain policeman, Jamil. He was killed in a terrorist attack in Ittehad Town in 2012, SSP Malir Rao Anwar said. The assailants had taken away the bike after killing the policeman.

He said police would focus on the 2012 attack to get clues about Friday’s attackers.

“We believe that a nexus of Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and TTP was involved in the attack on the police bus,” AIG Ghulam Qadir Thebo, the chief of Karachi police, said.

“Militants are targeting law-enforcement personnel because they are implementing the National Action Plan against terrorism,” he added.

The SSP Malir said that it was not advisable for 50 policemen to travel in one bus because “we are facing a war-like situation”.

There were also directives from higher authorities that not more than four policemen would travel in a vehicle to minimise the number of casualties, he added.

Security officials were of the opinion that installation of jammers in police vans was the only way to avoid terror attacks. One jammer costs anywhere between Rs1.5 million and Rs2m.

It was the third bomb attack in the city in eight days. Two Rangers personnel and two men belonging to the Bohra community were killed in two attacks last Friday.

Umer Khattab, the CTD official, said he believed the three terror attacks were not linked with each other.

“Two policemen were brought dead and 17 with injuries to JPMC,” said Dr Seemin Jamali, head of the emergency department of the hospital. The injured included 15 policemen and two civilians.

The condition of policeman Umaid Ali was critical. He was later shifted to a private hospital.

The dead policemen were identified as Saddam Karim, 25, and Chander Raj. The injured policemen included Altaf Mithal, Sudhir Ahmed, 35, Mohammed Saleem, 28, Mohammed Asif, Sabir Ali, Sain Bux, Mohammed Ismail, 22, Ali Nihal, 25, Attaullah, 28, Tayab, 24, Asif Ali, Suleman, Mukesh Kumar and Papu Kishan. The two civilians were identified as Mohammed Idris, 30, and Mohammed Amjad, 35.

Sindh IG Ghulam Hyder Jamali announced two jobs for heirs of the slain policemen.

He presided over a meeting to review the situation in the aftermath of the attack. The meeting was told that 27 policemen had lost their lives in the city over the past three months.