KARACHI, July 16: While police investigators have found many similarities between the midnight blast and the last year string of bomb attacks on Rangers personnel, another attempt apparently to target a convoy of Rangers was foiled on Monday morning after an over-12-kilograms improvised explosive device (IED) was defused near the headquarters of Sachal Rangers on the Superhighway.

A team of the bomb disposal unit was called when a passer-by spotted a suspicious-looking ghee container and informed the motorway police about it a few hours after four Rangers personnel were wounded in the midnight explosion in Landhi.

The IED carrying six kilos of explosives laced with bearing balls and nuts and bolts was connected to two nine-volt batteries, according to a bomb disposal team official.

The IED stuffed in an empty ghee container was spotted near the Rangers facility by a passer-by who informed the motorway police about it. They raced to the spot and called the local police as well as the bomb disposal unit after finding the device planted in the bushes in Imran Cooperative Housing Society, within the remit of the Gadap police station.

BDU officials examined the IED, which was supposed to be detonated with a remote control device, and defused it.

“Probably a passing Rangers convoy was the target,” said a senior police officer of the area.

The police said there was a mark of a gunshot on the container indicating that an attempt might have been made to detonate it by shooting but it didn’t work. An FIR (133/2012) was later registered at the Gadap City police station under Section 3/4 of the Explosives Act on behalf of the state.

Investigations

Police investigators said the midnight Landhi blast and the IED defused near the Rangers headquarters on the Superhighway contained similar constituents of bearing balls and explosives.

However, they added, the IED exploded near the Rangers vehicle in Landhi weighed around one and a half kilogram.

The investigators said as a matter of routine, the Rangers vehicle used to arrive and park at that place around midnight. The IED exploded at 12:05am, they said.

“It was a unidirectional device planted close to the Rangers vehicle,” said an official, adding that bearing balls and pellets hit the four Rangers personnel, their vehicle and a nearby electric pole. An FIR (64/2012) of the explosion was lodged at the Quaidabad police station on a complaint of Rangers Havaldar Qurban Ali under Sections 324, 427 and 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act and 4/5 of the Explosives Act against unidentified persons.