KARACHI: In a renewed wave of violence barely a few days into the new year, a police station came under grenade attack by unidentified assailants, who minutes later killed a rickshaw driver and wounded a policeman in an exchange of gunfire with police in North Nazimabad on Friday morning, police said.

The incident comes after the targeted killing of a police officer on Wednesday night on Rashid Minhas Road.

SSP Nasir Aftab said that two men riding a motorcycle threw a grenade at the North Nazimabad Police Complex that also houses the Taimuria police station and escaped. The grenade exploded on the premises of the police station causing injuries to Constable Mohammad Iqbal, 50.

He said the assailants reached Five Star traffic intersection — located around one and a half kilometres from the Taimuria police station — where four traffic policemen were regulating traffic and one of them was guarding the others with his official sub-machine gun.

The SSP said that they started firing and the armed policeman, identified as Bashir Ramzan, despite suffering a bullet wound returned fire forcing the suspects to escape. While fleeing, the suspects shot a rickshaw driver, Ali Imran, 25, as it appeared that he had blocked their exit path with his vehicle.

The wounded were taken to the nearby Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where doctors declared Imran dead. The condition of constables Ramzan and Iqbal was said to be stable. The rickshaw driver suffered bullet wounds in the neck. He was father of three and lived in Surjani Town.

About the grenade attack, bomb disposal official Abid Farooq said that it was a Russian-made (RGD-1) hand-grenade; the explosion damaged a wall of the police station.

During a visit to the scene, DIG-West Zone Zulfiqar Larik told media that the suspect used a 9mm pistol as investigators collected eight spent bullet casings of the pistol and nine spent bullet casings fired from the SMG of the policeman from the Five Star traffic intersection.

He said that the two incidents were carried out by the same suspects.

He said the police had some leads about the identity and motive of the attackers but it was premature to share the same with the media.

Meanwhile, Inspector General Police A.D. Khowaja took notice of the two attacks and directed the DIG concerned to submit a detailed report.

Earlier, on Wednesday night, Sub-Inspector Iqbal Mehmood was shot dead and his friend critically wounded in an armed attack on main Rashid Minhas Road within the remit of the Sharea Faisal police station.

The slain policeman was the investigation officer at the Ferozeabad police station and working on some ‘high-profile’ cases, which could be a possible motive for his murder.

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2017