LAHORE, Dec 30: Two unidentified motorcyclists threw a homemade explosive device inside the People’s Party Punjab office in Faisal Town on Thursday morning, which damaged some furniture and other belongings of the office.

Reports said the attackers came to the office at around 11 am, and threw a plastic bottle containing patrol and chemicals in the meeting room from a cavity made in the outer wall for a room cooler, and escaped.

“A fire erupted in the room which damaged some furniture, an AC, portrait of Benazir Bhutto and windows, while black smoke engulfed the whole office,” Hanif Tahir, secretary general of Punjab Peoples Lawyers wing, said, who was present on the spot.

He said at the time of incident an employee, Ghulam Mustafa, was present in the office, who, with the help of some passers-by extinguished the fire.

After the incident, party’s provincial leadership, workers and the police reached the spot.

Faisal Town SPO collected remains of the bottle and left the office after initial interrogation.

PPPP Punjab secretary general Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas, in an application to the Faisal Town SHO, stated that unidentified people tried to torch the party office and its record by throwing a patrol bomb, terming it an act of terrorism. He sought registration of cases under 438 PPC and section 7 of ATA against the attackers. However, the police registered a case under section 427 PPC, which deals with incidents of minor loss.

According to a release issued by the party’s provincial media cell, the PPP leaders have said that the incident was a reaction to the party’s “growing popularity” among masses. They said the official hand could not be ruled out behind the attack.

Meanwhile, Law Minister Basharat Raja has said in an official handout that Punjab IG had been directed to constitute a special team to probe into the incident.

Indirectly denying government’s involvement in the attack, he said violence and sabotage were against PML’s basic principles.