Tension gripped the city on Saturday after a hand grenade was hurled at a hardware shop in Liaquatabad No 2, leaving five persons maimed.Two young men wearing trousers and shirts hurled a hand grenade at the Green Hardware Shop near Dak Khana Chowrangi, Liaquatabad No 2. Resultantly, the shop owner Obaid Raja and four others, Asad Aslam, 20; Sohail Aziz, 22; Sardar Ghayasuddin, 35; and Mukhtiar Hussain, 27; were maimed.
Police shifted them to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medical treatment. According to the doctors, they sustained injuries in their upper and lower torsos and were out of danger.
Police, Rangers and bomb disposal squad also arrived and collected evidence from the scene. The kaboom partially damaged the interior of the shop. The incident triggered panic among the traders and shopkeepers of Liaquatabad who closed their shops and staged a protest demonstration. They shouted slogans against the extortionist group, demanding their elimination.
Shops being attacked with arms and hand grenades have become a routine matter in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
. Initially, the extortionist gangs were attacking Lyari, Old City and Saddar areas but in the recent months, one of the city's prominent and busiest markets in Liaquatabad has been hit by the menace.
Police sources said that an alleged member of one of the Lyari gangs, Shakir was tossed in the slammer about a couple of months ago for demanding Rs 400,000 from the same shop's owner and later shooting at and injuring a minor boy outside his shop over non-payment. Since his arrest, Obaid Raja was receiving threats to withdraw the case and the culprits were also demanding Rs 200,000 extortion, they added.
Police officials have not ruled out the involvement of Lyari's Rehman Dakait group behind these cases. SHO Mumtaz Shah said that the shopkeepers and traders were responsible for encouraging the extortionists by keeping the police uninformed.