SUKKUR: An FIR (No. 113) has been registered at the Rohri police station regarding Tuesday’s incident in which explosives at the Rohri Cement Factory had gone off during an attempt by the bomb disposal squad (BDS) to defuse some of them.

Six people, including a Rangers’ sepoy and several other law-enforcers, were killed and many others wounded in a series of blasts apparently triggered by a fire that suddenly broke out during the process at the factory’s ammunition depot.

The FIR under relevant sections of the Pakistan Penal Code and Anti-Terrorism Act was lodged by Inspector Shafiq Rehan against the factory administration. He stated in the FIR that Rangers and police personnel, during patrolling in the area to ensure peace during the upcoming month of Muharram, had found the explosive material dumped in a corner of the factory. He further stated that the law-enforcers came to know that it had been kept there since 2004.

Meanwhile, Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) chief Sanaullah Abbasi, speaking to the media here on Thursday, said that the matter of a private company keeping such a huge quantity of explosives on its premises would be taken up with the ministry of industries.

Published in Dawn, September 22nd, 2017