HYDERABAD: A would-be suicide bomber was killed by Rangers on Daman-i-Kohsar Road in Latifabad on Friday, while an accomplice of his escaped.

According to a press release issued by a Rangers spokesman in Karachi about the first such incident in Hyderabad, the bomber tried to enter an Imambargah while Friday prayers were under way.

“While trying to enter the Imambargah he lobbed a grenade at a Rangers van but the personnel responded swiftly and he was killed. His accomplice fled,” it said.

The Bab-i-Ali mosque is a few metres away from the Amani Shah graveyard from where the body of the terrorist, who appeared to be in his late 20s, was shifted to the Liaquat University Hospital’s mortuary by the Edhi volunteers.

A Rangers officer, who was witnessing Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) officials defusing the suicide vest worn by the terrorist, told this correspondent that a team of the paramilitary force was carrying out snap checking when they spotted two men on a motorcycle. When asked to stop, one of them entered the graveyard, while his accomplice fled on the motorbike. “The man who was killed lobbed a cracker inside the graveyard,” he said, adding that the Rangers’ vehicle was not hit. Police said a 30-bore pistol was found in the possession of the dead terrorist, wearing black shalwar kameez.

However, according to private security guards of the under-construction mosque, which also houses an institute, the prayers are held at around 1.30pm. “I heard a blast at around 11.45am and when I was coming to the mosque I saw that Rangers had besieged the graveyard. But no one tried to enter our mosque during the prayers,” said Nazim Zaidi, who is associated with the security and management of the premises.

The construction began in 2013 and most of the structure has been completed. The institution is being supervised by Dr Ghazanfar Taqvi, based in Karachi.

Mr Zaidi said the premises had twice come under armed attacks last year and the incidents had been reported to the airport police.

“We noted suspicious movements by people outside and also previously found objectionable chalking on the mosque’s wall. This, too, was reported to police,” he said.

It took BDS personnel more than an hour to defuse both parts of the suicide jacket. Rangers officials didn’t let photographers take snaps of the jacket. BDS official Ramzan Panhwar said: “There were no ball-bearings except for around 7kg of explosive material, which will be sent to a forensic laboratory for tests.”

A detonator was also found in the hand of the dead terrorist.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2016