[Dawn] Thirty people, three policemen and four children among them, were injured when a low-intensity bomb exploded during a Muharram mourning procession in Qasba Mor area of the city on Sunday.This was second such incident in the city in two days. Although bomb disposal personnel said the blast had not been caused by an improvised explosive device (IED) but by gas from an open sewer line along the road, the crater at the place was larger than usually seen after a sewerage line bust.
"We thoroughly checked the area and found nothing which shows it's a bomb blast," said Capital City Police Officer Waseem Ahmed.
"The situation is quite clear but we are still investigating to strengthen our findings. The injuries were caused when construction material dumped on the roadside came down due to force of the explosion."
But doctors at the Qatar Hospital and Abbassi Shaheed Hospital, where the injured had been taken to by residents, ambulances of charity organisations and also by law-enforcement personnel, found splinter wounds on their bodies.
"The wounds appear to have been caused by a bomb blast," said Dr Mashhooduz Zafar Farooq, medical superintendent at the Abbassi Shaheed Hospital. "We received seven people who had suffered minor injuries. They were discharged after necessary treatment."
Officials at Qatar Hospital in Orangi Town, where 27 injured people had been treated, were of the same opinion. "The 27 injured included two boys nine to 10 years old and three policemen," said one of the officials. "One policeman was taken to the Abbassi Shaheed Hospital because he required a minor head surgery which we couldn't do here, but he was out of danger."
Violence erupted in Qasba and Ali Garh areas after the blast and dozens of charged youths took to the main road chanting slogans against the government, blaming it for what they called its failure to make adequate security arrangements.
| That certainly is one way to describe the government sponsorship, training and funding of jihadi groups that were intended to be aimed at India and Afghanistan. |
Despite police insistence that it was not a case of bomb explosion, the incident set alarms bell ringing in law-enforcement quarters and senior officials met later in the night to review security arrangements for Ashura on Monday.