Sabotage bid foiled in Peshawar as two anti-tank mines defused

Sabotage bid foiled in Peshawar as two anti-tank mines defused

By Javed Aziz Khan
PESHAWAR: Police thwarted a major sabotage bid by recovering two high intensity anti-tank mines along with a timer and other accessories from a car parked outside a crowded plaza in the main Cantonment on Saturday afternoon.
“The timer was on and the switches were perfectly connected,” Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Peshawar Abdul Majeed Khan told The News. He disclosed that the white Suzuki Mehran car, bearing registration number AEG-622-Sindh, was parked outside a bank in the Cantonment Plaza on Fakhr-e-Alam Road.
A policeman, Asif Shah, who was patrolling in the area suspected something wrong after seeing smoke billowing out of the vehicle at around 1.45 pm. The fire brigade and the bomb disposal squad (BDS) were also called. The BDS defused the two high-intensity explosive devices connected with the timer and a 12-volt battery.
“It could result in massive destruction had it not been defused on time. Each explosive was carrying four to five kilogram of explosive material,” Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Operations Mohammad Tahir Khan told The News.
The incharge SP of Cantonment area, Ijaz Khan, informed that the car had been parked at the spot at around 12.58 pm, while smoke started to billow out at around 13.21 pm. Fire brigade, he said, was called at around 13.24 pm while the bomb disposal squad informed them about the recovery of explosives at around 2.45 pm.
A bomb had gone off a few weeks back close to the site, outside the Greens Hotel on Saddar Road, injuring four persons including provincial information secretary of the ANP and former Senator Syed Aqil Shah.
The provincial metropolis has experienced some 18 bomb blasts during the past nine months and to the disappointment of the public, a single perpetrator of these explosions is yet to be arrested, or even traced out, though dozens of teams were constituted to work out these cases.
Security forces were at highest alert in the Peshawar for the past many days. The specially trained Quick Response Force of the Frontier Constabulary is patrolling along with policemen in Armed Personnel Carriers in different parts of the city to maintain worsening law and order situation.