KARACHI – A n explosion ripped off the roof of a house in the Korangi area on Saturday, while killing one person and injuring two others. Police said a man identified as Zulfiqar Kolachi was killed in the blast near Gulzar Mosque in the Jumma Goth area of Ibrahim Hyderi, Korangi. The two injured men, detained by the police, were identified as Ismail Kolachi, 25, and Sadruddin, 22, while the law enforcers also arrested two more suspects named Faisal Shar and Mobeen Shar from the spot.
Soon after the blast, police and other law enforcement agencies cordoned off the site where the blast took place and started a search operation in the area. More than six persons were arrested in the crackdown and shifted to an undisclosed location. Police said the nature of the blast was yet to be ascertained, however, people residing in the vicinity said the impact of blast was huge, as evident from the collapsed roof of house No 1574.
The dead and the injured were shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC). Insider sources claimed that deceased Zulfiqar was the head of a militant group and had been an active member of Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (Bashir Qureshi) in the past. They said that the alleged terrorists during interrogation have admitted to planning for launching attacks on Shah Latif and Ibrahim Hyderi police stations on March 7.
“We were going to attack different police stations in the city. We had a large quantity of explosives in the house for making bombs but one of our own colleagues lighted a cigarette that caused the blast,” said the sources, quoting the arrested suspects. Talking to Pakistan Today, Sindh Inspector General of Police (IGP) Fayyaz Leghari said the suspects were preparing some explosives that went off, causing an explosion.
He added that the terrorists belong to a Sindhi nationalist group named Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (Shafi Barfat) and regularly blow up railway tracks. “The group named Sindh Liberation Army is involved in terrorist activities across the Sindh province,” said the IGP. More than six persons of this terrorist group were working in the area for a long time and organising terrorist activities like attacks on police stations and railway tracks, he added.
A highly-place police official told Pakistan Today that the police would conduct raids in a day or two after completing interrogation from the arrested suspects and search operations might be carried out in the suburbs of the city. “The arrested suspects have revealed about some hideouts of other terrorists in different parts of city especially Bin Qasim, Gadap, Lyari and Malir towns,” he said.
Plain-clothed law enforcers have been deputed in the areas for monitoring the hideouts while the intelligence agencies have been asked to be on alert.
