KARACHI, May 11: An anti-terrorism court judge expressed dissatisfaction over the incompetence of the bomb disposal squad and asked the authorities to impart proper training and education to them.

The observation to this effect was made by Judge Feroze Mehmood Bhatti of the ATC-II in his judgment in the PSO bomb blast case on Tuesday. "I would like to record my dissatisfaction to the effect that Prosecution Witness No 13, Masab Hussain, shift in charge of Bomb Disposal Unit, examined at Ex-66, produced the bomb blast report on April 15, 2003, but the report is silent about securing of any splinters of the bomb of 1.5kg high explosive, which according to him had exploded at the place of incident," the judge stated.

He also observed that the bomb disposal expert had given his deposition like an "ordinary person so much so that his evidence does not give smell to be that of an expert". The judge called upon the government to give "utmost attention to the bomb disposal unit and the newly established investigating agency".

He said: "The officials affiliated with the bomb disposal unit and the investigation agency should be well versed with the substances as well as the case law.

I stress upon the superior police officers to conduct short courses to educate the bomb disposal unit and investigating officer, particularly in Code of Criminal Procedure and Qanun-i-Shahadat Order 1984 so that they should perform their respective duties properly and give un- impeachable evidence in order to curtail the flow of terrorism and eradicate the crimes".

The bomb disposal squad of police is already stated to be under staffed, ill-equipped and often seems to lack expertise even to assess the amount and types of explosives used in an act of terrorism.

According to officials, the BDS headed by DIG Special Branch has a strength of 10 officers, comprising one inspector, four sub-inspectors, three assistant sub-inspectors, two constables.

They said that the Civil Defence office located at Gulshan-i- Iqbal imparted initial training of bomb reconnaissance. Two other courses for bomb disposal and improvised explosive devises were offered by the Civil Defence Academy, Lahore, they added.