KHAIRPUR, March 1 Police have picked up some suspects for interrogation from Hundyari village where an explosion took place in a house on Sunday, leaving 12 members of a family injured, four of them critically.

Investigations showed it was not a bomb, as earlier assumed, but three small landmines which went off when some members of the family tried to open them.

Army hawaldar Hamza Islami, his wife Kamalan and daughter Haseena, 12, Hajani Wadar, Haji Najam Din, his wife Hajul and daughter Samina, 20, Imran, 5, Ashfaq, 5, Kamal, Mehnaz, and Haji Qabool Mohammad were injured.

A critically injured Hamza Islami, Hajani Wadar, Kamalan and Haji Najam Din were taken to the Combined Military Hospital in Pano Akil.

On Monday, Haji Najam Din, elder brother of Hamza, was taken to Khairpur civil hospital because only army men and their family members were allowed to be treated at the CMH under the rules, said Soomar Ali Islami, a relative of Hamza.

He expressed ignorance about the explosion and said he knew nothing because he lived in Bozdar Wada, which is away from Hundyari village.

Zahid Hussain Islami, Hamza's brother-in-law, said that Hamza, his wife Kamalan and mother Hajani were making recovery.

He quoted injured Hamza as saying that his brother had found a shopping bag hanging on a date palm tree when he climbed it to sprinkle male pollens on the date flowers.

He brought the shopping bag home, which according to him, contained three round boxes. Mr Zahid said that Hamza and his brother were inspecting the boxes when they suddenly went off.

Khairpur DPO Pir Mohammad Shah said that preliminary investigations had revealed the explosion was not caused by a number of devices, and not one.

There were three small landmines weighing about 250 grams each and round in shape, he said.

He quoted Hamza as saying that the round boxes had the words “POF” written on them. The abbreviation stands for Pakistan Ordnance Factories.

It was still not clear, he added, whether the landmines were brought by Hamza or someone else in the family. Hamza was critically injured and not in a position to face investigators, he said.

Thari Mir Wah police have registered an FIR on behalf of the state on a complaint lodged by sub-inspector Shoukat Ali Kobhar against unknown accused.

SPO Iqbal Jumani said that a police picket had been up set in the village and investigation was under way.