HYDERABAD, July 12: The city was rocked early Friday morning by two powerful blasts, one damaging a portion of the boundary wall of the Senior Superintendent of Police office and the other believed to have hit railway tracks near Hussainabad without leaving any trace or visible damage.
No one was reported hurt in either blast.
The back-to-back blasts were heard across the city. The first blast was heard between 4.40am and 4.45am followed by the second explosion, according to area people.
The blast tore down about four-foot portion of the boundary wall of the SSP office and caused a one-foot deep crater, according to an official of the Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS). It shattered windowpanes and a portion of false ceiling in the meeting room of SSP’s office and kitchen.The blast was so powerful it also damaged false ceiling in adjacent Umer Islam mosque and shattered windowpanes in a number of nearby houses.
Besides, windowpanes of Sindh University Old Campus’ clock tower, halls and buses parked in the campus were also damaged. A small cabin sitting on a footpath nearby was also damaged.
“It’s sheer terrorism and is a message for law-enforcement agencies,” said SSP Saqib Ismail Memon in his initial reaction.
Eyewitnesses who were coming out of the mosque when the blast occurred said that they felt as if an earthquake had hit them. But after sometime they realised it was a blast. They were not able to see anything for some time because of thick smoke and dust filling the air after the blast, they said.
Luckily, no one was hurt, they said.
The bomb was planted on the footpath outside the boundary wall. Police and Rangers rushed to the blast scene, preventing onlookers crowding the site as the BDS officials examined the site.
BDS official Saleem Vistro said the explosive device weighed three kilos and it was a planted on the footpath. He avoided sharing more details.
The second blast is believed to have occurred at the railway tracks in Hussainabad but it failed to do any visible damage to the tracks and leave any trace.
Eyewitnesses said they saw potassium scattered over the tracks and some shreds of a gunny bag. A train passed over the tracks safely soon after the blast, casting doubts on whether the blast did occur or not.
Some believe both the blasts hit the SSP one after the other but it is incomprehensible that one blast pulled down a portion of a concrete wall while the other failed to leave any mark on the tracks.
“I believe it was only one blast that hit our offices because I could not find any trace of the second blast at the tracks. There was a rumour about the second blast but we couldn’t verify it. I did visit the tracks in Hussainabad but I won’t say it was hit by a blast,” said SSP Saqib Ismail Memon.
Another rumour was circulating about the blast in Qasimabad but it was not confirmed, he said.
He said the BDS officials would submit a report to police which would be matched with reports of similar blasts that hit the city in the recent past. “There are some similarities between this blast and those that occurred in the past,” he said.
But he stopped short of naming a banned nationalist organisation which had claimed responsibility of similar blasts in the past. “It will be premature to say who is behind it. No pamphlets have been found at the blast sites that are usually thrown there by that organisation,” he said.
He said the surveillance system of the offices would be tightened and hinted at installing closed-circuit TV cameras to monitor movements in and outside the premises.
Meanwhile, the Cantonment police registered an FIR 102/13 under sections 427, 4/5 Explosive Substance Act 1908, 6/7 Anti Terrorism Act 1997 against unknown persons on behalf of state. No suspects have been arrested so far.
