KARACHI: A police inquiry into a grenade blast inside the highly sensitive Police Headquarters Garden on Aug 3 has come to the conclusion that two Russian-made grenades, one of which had exploded, were not part of the record of a police armoury, it emerged on Tuesday.

The inquiry also raised questions about the role of injured armoury in-charge Sub-Inspector Saeed Ahmed and Head Constable of Fire Arms Bureau (FAB) Sohail Aziz, who had brought the grenades outside the armoury without any intimation to his seniors for some unknown reasons.

Two policemen, Shehzad and Sabir, were killed and armoury in charge SI Saeed and Constable Ali Gohar critically injured when one of the two Russian-made grenades, RGD-1, exploded outside the armoury at the Garden PHQ.

South-DIG Sharjil Kharal had formed an inquiry team led by South SSP Syed Asad Raza, comprising City SSP (Investigation) Asif Ahmed Bughio and Saddar SP Ali Mardan Khoso, to ascertain the facts/circumstances leading to the incident and fix responsibility.

Investigators unaware of origin of ‘off-the-books’ grenades

“The whole episode around the tragic explosion that resulted in deaths of two policemen paints a sordid picture of the ways in which custody, inventory and handling of dangerous weapons was carried out at FAB malkhana inside premises of highly sensitive Garden Police HQs,” stated the inquiry report reviewed by Dawn.

“It is established beyond a doubt that the explosion occurred due to tinkering with live hand grenades by PC Shehzad for which he was neither trained nor authorized to handle, that resulted in his own death and that of his colleague besides critical injuries to others.”

Question remains about grenades’ origin

The inquiry could not ascertain the origin of the grenades. “The origin of two live hand grenades at FAB malkhana is by far not clear and needs to be accounted for,” it said.

However, the inquiry revealed that it was head constable Sohail who shifted the grenades from FAB malkhana to PHQ Garden malkhana ‘without knowledge of his superior’.

His role was doubted by the inquiry team that questioned him as to why he shifted the grenades.

“His (Sohail) act of shifting the hand grenades from FAB malkhana to PHQ Garden malkhana without bringing into knowledge of his superior and without any satisfactory explanation as to for what purpose, raises serious doubts on his intentions and integrity,” said the report, adding: “This act amounts to gross negligence, disregard for other lives and highly reprehensible.”

The inquiry also raised questions about the role of injured in-charge of armoury SI Saeed.

“Similarly, role of SI Saeed is equally shady on account of having received the two highly dangerous hand grenades for unknown purposes without any authorization,” it said, suggesting “strict legal and disciplinary action against both the delinquent officials for inefficiency, negligence and misconduct”.

‘Off -the-book’ grenades

The report said that head constable Sohail posted at FAB brought two grenades for ‘checking’ and told injured armoury in-charge SI Saeed Ahmed that these grenades were lying with them ‘off the books’.

The SI Saeed placed both grenades on a table and left the office and went to a cobbler’s shop which was nearby. Constable Shehzad took a grenade and brought it out near the cobbler’s shop and started putting the detonator into the grenade.

He (SI Saeed) forbade PC Shehzad twice not to tamper with it and don’t put/install detonator in it as it was already in a ‘rusty’ condition and the pin was in ‘danger of breaking’.

At that time, constable Shehzad had come near him (the injured Saeed) when suddenly the grenade exploded.

Head Constable Sohail Aziz of FAB malkhana told the inquiry team that two months ago, he had found some ‘off-the-books gas shells’ which he handed over to armoury in-charge SIP Saeed Ahmed.

Furthermore, during checking on Aug 3, he found two grenades lying inside a small packet (box) which was ‘off the books’ and he took out these two grenades and its pin from a packet (box) and put them in the side pocket of his shirt and brought them to PHQ armoury to hand over to the in charge.

He told SI Saeed that these grenades were lying in the malkhana off the books.

Replying to a question as to whether these grenades were case property, Sohail responded he did not know about this because this malkhana was shifted from Hyderabad to PHQ Garden, Karachi in 1974 and these arms and ammunition etc must have been shifted at that time while these grenades were lying off-the-books in malkhana. “There is no written record available about such grenades in our malkhana.”

Asked as to whether these grenades had been handed over to him by someone else, HC Sohail responded that around two months back all such arms/ammunition, etc, were shifted from the old malkhana office (FAB) to new malkhana (FD office), while now a ‘Police Museum’ had been constructed on the premises of the old malkhana.

He hinted that such grenades might have been shifted to the new malkhana by that time. He claimed out of his ‘goodwill,’ he handed over these grenades to the armoury in-charge.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2022