LARKANA: Larkana police on Monday claimed to have arrested six suspects in Nasirabad and seized from them two hand-grenades and four pistols.

According to a spokesman for the Larkana SSP, during an interrogation, the suspects confessed that they had carried out blasts to damage two pylons carrying a 500kV high tension power transmission line, near Abra Kumbhar village located with in the jurisdiction of the Rasheed Wagan police station of Larkana district on April 15.

The police identified them as Faraz Ahmed, Mohammed Haneef, Zubair and Imtiaz — all Jalbanis by caste — and Farhan Jatoi. They said the suspects belonged to the Asghar Shah group of the proscribed militant outfit, Sindhudesh Revolutionary Army (SRA).

The police were tracing record of the suspects for further investigation.

FIR was lodged by NTDC on April 15

National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) sub-divisional officer Asad Murtaza Awan had lodged an FIR (No. 10/22) after the incident under Sections 3/4 of the Explosive Act, Section 427 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and 6/7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) against unknown suspects. He had stated that he was informed by operator of the company’s control room at the area’s grid station about suspension of power supply. The matter was conveyed to the NTDC resident engineer. Later, it emerged that pylons Nos. 526 and 527 were damaged in the blasts carried out some local made firecrackers, he stated. The blasts damaged one pylon’s three foundations and the other’s four foundations, he added.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2022