Daily Times

KARACHI: Investigation into the explosion incident in a passenger bus in Qaidabad area which had left 7 people injured have revealed that it was not a cylinder blast but explosive material was used and some investigators have termed the incident as a terror activity.

Initially on Friday night the police received information that a gas cylinder inside a passenger bus exploded which left multiple people injured.

After the incident the area police along with Rangers personals and bomb disposal squad reached on the spot where rescue workers shifted at least seven injured to hospital for medical treatment.

According to the police explosion left three shops completely destroyed and the roof of bus was blown away.

Bomb disposal squad in the supervision of its incharge Sabir Durrani investigated the bus and the spot for at least 45 minutes and termed the explosion as the compressor blast in initial report.

Some investigative officers from various LAEs remained on the spot to check the matter further because they had termed the incident mysterious and suspicious after seeing the spot because a compressor explosion cannot create so much damage.

The passenger bus that was damaged was ready to leave Karachi with passenger within the next half an hour and passengers were waiting outside the bus and if they were on board in bus there might have been several casualties, an officer informed.

After the long assessment on the spot some officers claimed that they found clues that the incident was a terror activity and explosive material was used for the explosion or it might be that a terrorist was transporting the explosive material out of city and it exploded due to heat in the bus.

The police has included this factor in further investigation to find the actual facts.

It is pertinent to mention that in Qaidabad Chorangi has around 35 bus stops which are being run by some influential personalities illegally despite the court orders to transfer these stops from there.

“These bus stops are always crowded and can become a soft target for terrorists” an officer of investigation police Malir told Daily Times.

Published in Daily Times, June 25th, 2017.