RAWALPINDI, May 4: Bomb disposal squad and police on Saturday removed a dummy explosive device near Islamabad International Airport.

Police officials received an information at 10:35am that an explosive device had been planted outside a market in the Airport Housing Society Gulzar-i-Quaid. Responding to the call, the police and bomb disposal squad personnel rushed to the spot.

“The device weighing 1.5kg had a clock and other makings of a bomb. Words TNT High Explosive were clearly written on it and it looked like a highly-explosive time device,” a bomb disposal squad official said. It took us almost 30 minutes to disconnect it, he added.

After being removed to the Civil Defence laboratory, it transpired that the device did not have explosive material in it.

The incident not only created panic among the residents of the locality, but also upset the police highups and other security agencies, who were all concentrating on the security of Hazrat Imam Hussain’s Chehlum procession in the city.