HYDERABAD: The civilian and non-civilian authorities are looking into different aspects of Monday’s explosion in Qasimabad in the backdrop of a purported claim by a group calling itself the ‘Sindhudesh Revolu­tionary Army (SRA)’ that it carried out the attack and that the target was a law-enforcement agency’s vehicle.

“A meeting of various agencies’ representatives was held under one roof which discussed various factors regarding Monday’s blast and investigation will be done from all angles,” said a police source. He said that different things were being checked.

Hyderabad’s counterterrorism police have lodged a case in connection with the explosion, which had left a rag picker dead and a passer-by injured, on the complaint of Qasimabad SHO Faiz Ali Shah.

The purported SRA claim is doing round on the social media, inviting attention of senior police authorities as well.

“We own responsibility for Mon­day’s blast purpose of which was to target a law enforcing agency’s vehicle that was to pass through the area 15 minutes after the blast but someone else had touched the device which exploded,” said the pamphlet appearing on a social media website.

It appealed to Sindhi people to stay away from kiosks of law-enforcement agencies and maintain a distance from the routes which personnel of these agencies normally used. It said such action would continue against them till independence of Sindhudesh.

Hyderabad DIG Javed Alam Odho said that the claim was under the process of verification. “We are checking everything and involvement of sub nationalist groups [in the blast] as well,” said the DIG.

Other police sources said that the authorities did not want to rule out any factor at this pint of time despite the fact that no such pamphlet or paper slip was found at the scene of the offence as was usually found in such cases.

“The improvised explosive device (IED) was not a sophisticated one, still it appears that it was a skilfully produced piece,” said an officer.

According to him, the case would also be looked into from the angle of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) because a sub-nationalist group had taken an anti-CPEC stand.

The Hyderabad CTD is supposed to investigate the case in view of its nature and the Hyderabad police would assist it technically, like geo fencing, besides planning arrests. Police are questioning Jeewan Bheel, brother of the deceased rag picker, Bachal Bheel. Their family resides in huts located on the outskirts of Qasimabad.

“We have so far learnt that this family has been doing this job [rag picking], therefore, we are neither clearing the deceased and his family nor are we maligning them as alleged facilitators of offenders,” said a police source.

Meanwhile, Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz-Arisar (JSQM-A) chairman Dr Mir Alam Marri and its other office-bearers in a joint statement issued here on Tuesday condemned the blast.

They said the blast was aimed at harassing people.

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2018