KARACHI: Four policemen narrowly survived a grenade attack on their mobile van in Shah Latif Town in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, police said.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack in which the police van was partially damaged.

The police said that the incident took place at Haji Ismail Jokhio Goth off National Highway at around 4:15am when the mobile van was stationed and policemen were busy in snap-checking of vehicles.

Malir SSP Hasan Sardar told the media that three unknown persons, riding on two motorbikes, came close to the mobile van and one of them threw a grenade targeting the police vehicle and sped away.

He said that it appeared that the grenade missed the target — the mobile van — and exploded after hitting the ground. All the policemen remained safe as they were not standing very close to the van, he added.

However, the explosion damaged the vehicle, he said, adding that the police were trying to obtain CCTV footage from the area.

The police said that the policemen also fired at the suspects but they managed to escape.

Later in the day, the Shah Latif Town police registered a case on behalf of the state under Sections 324 (attempted murder), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act and Sections 3 /4 of the Explosive Substance Act against three unknown persons.

The police said that the attackers came from Quaidabad side. The Bomb Disposal Squad was called and it collected evidence as well as five spent bullet casings, fired by the official sub-machine gun of a policeman, from the scene of crime.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2023