KARACHI, Nov 18: Two men were killed and three others were injured when a cylinder of a minibus exploded at a filling station on Abul Hassan Ispahani Road on Sunday.

Police said the explosion took place at around 9.45am when the minibus of route G-17 bearing registration number JE-0759 was getting CNG refilled.

Rescue workers and police rushed to the scene after the blast and pulled out a mutilated body from the mangled bus. The wounded were rushed to a nearby private hospital.

A rickshaw parked right behind the ill-fated bus for its turn to get the gas was also destroyed in the blast but its driver escaped with injuries.

The blast damaged the filling station and shattered windowpanes of nearby buildings.

A bus passenger died on the spot. His body was shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities where the victim was identified as Ayub Hanif, 40, a labourer and resident of Shafeeq Colony.

The injured were identified as rickshaw driver Dost Mohammad, Ayaz Ahmed, Bilal and Yousuf. Later, Ayaz Ahmed, said to be in a serious condition, was taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre where he breathed his last.

“A substandard gas cylinder caused the explosion,” said DIG-East Shahid Hayat.

An officer of the Mobina Town police station said that instead of a standard CNG cylinder, a substandard cylinder meant for the liquid petroleum gas was fitted in the bus.

Fortunately, the explosion did not cause a fire at the filling station, otherwise, the loss of life and property would have been manifold, said the officer.

The blast caused panic in the areas surrounding the filling station and people rushed to help the wounded.

The bus wreckage was removed to the nearby Mobina Town police station.

No legal formalities about the accident had been initiated till the filing of this report.

Kidnapped KU student recovered, suspect killed

A suspect was killed and a kidnapped student was recovered during a police raid in Gulistan-i-Jauhar on Sunday. Police said the student of Karachi University, Mohammad Fahad, 22, had been kidnapped on Saturday afternoon near Samama Shopping Centre on University Road.

“Fahad was returning home after dropping his sister at the university when five unknown persons in two cars kidnapped him,” Anti-Violent Crime Cell SSP Niaz Ahmed Khosa said.

The student’s family later received a call from the kidnappers who demanded a ransom of Rs2 million. However, the amount was negotiated to Rs700,000 by Sunday morning, the SSP said.

Acting on a tip-off about the presence of the suspects in Pehalwan Goth, the AVCC along with the Citizen-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) raided a house. The occupants of the house opened fire on the police and an encounter ensued in which one of the suspects was killed. However, his four accomplices escaped, the police said.

The identity of the dead could not be established till late in the night.

The kidnapped student was safely recovered from the house.

The police said he was a son of a fruits trader at the new Sabzi Mandi.

CPLC chief Ahmed Chinoy claimed that it was a sixth case in which the kidnapped victim was recovered successfully in recent weeks.