PESHAWAR, April 11: Police defused here on Monday a bomb planted outside the residence of Jamaat-i-Islami provincial general secretary Shabir Ahmed Khan in Afghan Colony.

An official of Faqirabad police station said that they rushed to the spot when received information about the presence of a suspicious bag outside the residence of JI leader.

“We called Bomb Disposal Unit to check the bag, placed along a wall of the house,” he said. He added that police searched the area but nobody was arrested. He said that a case against unidentified terrorists was registered.

An official of Bomb Disposal Unit said that the explosive, weighing six kilograms, was packed in plastic. He said that it was a remoter controlled bomb. He said that they also recovered a battery, electric detonator and other items from the site. The official said that the bomb was so powerful that it could destroy the house easily.

Meanwhile, Jamaat-i-Islami will hold a province-wide protest on Tuesday against the attempt to blow up house of its provincial leader.

JI provincial naib amir Merajuddin asked his party workers to hold protest demonstrations in all the districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Talking to journalists outside his house, Shabir Ahmed Khan said that agents of American agencies including CIA and Blackwater were roaming freely in the country. They were involved in target killing of Pakistanis but the government was not providing sufficient security to people, he said. He said that JI activists had already been killed in a suicide bomb blast at Qissa Khwani. He added that a bomb blast had also taken place at Al-Markaz-i-Islami few months ago but government failed to arrest the elements involved in the terror acts.

He said that it was an attempt to pressurise JI workers to stop the ongoing membership drive. “We are committed to our mission and are not afraid of bombs and opponents,” he said and asked party workers to remain peaceful.