KARACHI: Police on Monday claimed to have recovered a suicide jacket and said that it might be made for carrying out an explosion in the main Yaum-i-Ali procession in the city.

DIG-East Amir Farooqi told Dawn that police got reports that terrorists might target the Yaum-i-Ali procession and for the past three-four days the law enforcers had been carrying out combing operations in different areas from where the procession would pass.

On Monday morning, the law enforcers searched the narrow streets in Lines Area and found a suicide jacket behind the Shahabudin Market around 300 meters away from the route of the procession.

“There was a ring attached to a string,” the DIG said, adding that the jacket might have exploded like a hand-grenade if someone pulled the string or the pin.

“It [suicide jacket] was ready to use,” he said and added that it was left abandoned outside a house in an isolated corner of a street due to the daily combing operations in the area by law enforcers.

“Had it not been recovered, they (terrorists) would have used it today,” the DIG said.

Quoting a Bomb Disposal Squad’s report, the senior officer said that the suicide jacket weighed around six kilograms and packed with explosives and steel nuts/bolts to create maximum impact.

He said that the police detained 20 persons from the area for questioning.

Meanwhile, Inspector General of Police Dr Syed Kaleem Imam while talking to media during a visit of the mourning procession routes appreciated the performance of police and opined that it was because of ‘proactive policing’ that the suicide jacket was recovered.

He also appreciated the coordination between all law enforcement agencies for maintaining law and order.

Separately, the director general of Sindh Rangers, Major General Omer Ahmed Bukhari, also visited the mourning procession routes and expressed his satisfaction over security measures.

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2019