HYDERABAD: A senior bomb disposal official suffered serious wounds when a cracker he was trying to defuse went off in Tando Allahyar on Tuesday.

Dr Amir Usman, who examined the official at the LHU, said Saleem Vistro’s left hand had suffered partial amputation from the wrist region downward to his fingers. “His left hand’s second and third fingers are absent,” he said, adding that the palm and skin of the wrist also had deep wounds.

Hyderabad bomb disposal squad (BDS) official Vistro had gone to the Tando Allahyar police station on a directive of the Hyderabad antiterrorism court to defuse 40 crackers seized from some nationalist activists on Oct 16 in Mansoor Colony of the town.

A seasoned professional who received training in Jordan, Mr Vistro successfully defused 17 of the 40 crackers in the ground adjacent to the police station but the 18th one went off in his hands. He was rushed to a local hospital and then to the Liaquat University Hospital (LHU) for treatment.

The doctor said that cracker shrapnel hit his thigh, leg and abdomen, besides the right hand’s thumbnail and skin, but the wounds were not serious.

He has since been shifted to a private hospital in Karachi.

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2014