SHIKARPUR/SUKKUR, Dec 18: A suicide bomber was killed and three policemen were injured when the bomber, even though injured after being shot, blew himself up in Napierabad, the hometown of Sindh Minister for Livestock Mir Abid Hussain Jatoi, on Ashura day.

Official sources said the terrorist, aged about 20 years, entered a Majlis (mourning congregation) and hurled a grenade which luckily did not explode.

He was immediately spotted and intercepted by Mr Jatoi’s security guards present in the Majlis. The terrorist tried to fire off his pistol, but the minister’s guards opened fire on him first.

Policemen, who were deployed outside the Majlis venue, also rushed to the scene after which the bomber tried to flee, but broke down after covering a little distance.

He detonated his suicide jacket when the policemen came near, killing himself and injuring SHO Hanif Khoso, constables Ghulam Shabbir, Allah Warayo and Seeran.

The policemen sustained shrapnel injuries in lower parts of their bodies. There were no other casualties because the bomber blew himself up when he was on the ground.

The injured policemen were taken to the Shikarpur civil hospital from where the SHO was sent by the authorities to the Aga Khan Hospital in Karachi.

Doctors stated condition of the other injured as stable.

Shikarpur DPO Hameed Khoso said there were indications about presence of some local accomplices of the bomber at the time when the bomber wanted to target the Majlis and search was being made for arresting them.

According to reports, three members of Lashkar-i-Jhangvi were arrested from the nearby town of Khanpur.

They were identified as Jawed Arain, Shahid Arain and Akram Arain.

Mr Khoso said the incident was being investigated from different angles, including keeping open the option whether the bomber was connected to some religious militant group or that he had some other kind of enmity.

He said the police action on the spot was miscalculated and the bomber could have been arrested alive provided there were trained police officers.

The DPO said the head of the bomber had not yet been found and efforts were being made to collect all clues in this regard.

Minister Jatoi, however, refused to buy police version and hinted at possibility of attack on his community because the bomber had adventured for this action in an area controlled by the Jatois.

The DPO said the attacker was given a special task for target killing of some selected persons, but he failed to achieve the goal.

He said the attacker was an outsider and he looked like a ‘Pakhtun’.

He said the injured attacker took a chance to detonate explosives available with him in which the SHO and three police constables were injured and he himself was killed.