KARACHI: The police Saturday recovered a bag containing an improvised explosive device (IED) from a train bogie at the Cantt Railway Station in the port city.
The police said the bomb disposal unit reached the station after receiving information about the device in the Awaam Express and defused it through a controlled blast.
According to the law-enforcement officials, the train had arrived from Peshawar to Karachi on Friday and the bomb was put under a seat.
According to Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) senior officer Raja Umar Khattab, the attempt to sabotage could have been done by a separatist group. According to the bomb disposal squad, the explosive was hidden in a black and red coloured school bag.
Syed Asad Raza, Director General of Police (DIG) South, said that the bomb, weighing 5 kilograms consisted of 2kgs of explosives and was attached to a “time device”, while a motorcycle battery was attached to detonate it.
He said the possible target was the north of Sindh, as the time of the bomb to explode was set at 12pm Friday and the train was near Sukkur-Rohri Junction during that time. “The bomb didn’t explode at that time due to a malfunctioned wire inside it,” he added.
He said the police were informed about the bomb one hour after the train reached the Cantt Station, by the railway staff. A case has been registered at the Railway Police Cantt Station.
The DIG said that CCTV footages at different railway stations from Peshawar to Karachi are being obtained while the railway staff was also being investigated.
