As investigations into Orangi blast continue, police negligence found

Law enforcement agencies have so far failed to trace the masterminds, key operatives and facilitators of the attack on the Rangers in Orangi Town on Monday. Meanwhile, it has been revealed that the motorcycle used in the attack had been stolen a few days earlier but police did not register any case.

A Rangers soldier, 42-year-old Roshan Ali, son of Khan Muhammad, was martyred, and 15 others, including two Rangers personnel and a policeman, were injured following an explosion near a Rangers vehicle in Orangi Town on Monday evening.

This was the second major incident caused by police negligence in Karachi in less than six months. In the earlier incident, an officer of the police department, Additional SHO Rahim Khan, lost his life due to police negligence.

It has emerged that the motorcycle used in the attack on the Rangers was stolen from the Mujahid Colony area in Orangi Town about 12 days before it was used in the blast. The motorcycle was stolen on March 3 and although the owner of the motorcycle frequently approached police to register a case of his motorcycle theft, police continued to use delay tactics and did not register any case.

The owner of the motorcycle said that he had parked his motorcycle outside his house on March 3 and when he found that it had been stolen, he immediately lodged a complaint at the Police Helpline 15.

“I repeatedly visited the police station to get an FIR registered of the motorcycle theft but the police using lame excuses refused to register a case,” told Ramzan, the owner of the motorcycle. “There might have been no attack and no loss if the police had registered a case timely.”

Interestingly, police registered a case of the motorcycle theft after it had been used in the attack on the Rangers. The police officer who did not register the case of the motorcycle theft has been identified and is likely to be dismissed from service.

Taking notice of the police negligence in delaying the registration of the FIR, Additional IG Karachi Ghulam Nabi Memon said the duty officer, ASI Roman, intentionally did not register the case of the motorcycle theft, upon which a show cause notice had been issued to him.

He added that the duty officer neither registered a case nor informed the SHO of the police station about the incident. “The police department gets defamed because of such cops,” he said.

A police investigator privy to the matter said that it emerged after police detained the elderly owner of the motorcycle following the Rangers blast and during interrogation, it was revealed that the motorcycle was stolen on March 3 and the owner repeatedly approached police to get an FIR registered.

Earlier in September 2020, a similar incident had occurred in District East of Karachi, in which an additional SHO of the Gulistan-e-Jauhar police station lost his life in an encounter. Culprits who opened fire on police and killed the additional SHO were in a white Toyota Corolla that had been snatched at gunpoint in Block 14 of Gulistan-e-Jauhar on September 24 from the car owner, Junaid.

A day after the snatching of the car, police did not register a case of the car snatching and used the delay tactics. The culprits changed the car’s number plate and used it in another criminal activity. “The additional SHO had lost the life when the suspects on the same snatched car were fleeing after conducting another criminal activity and police were trying to chase them. When the culprits reached the Jauhar area after a robbery on Khalid Bin Waleed Road, they opened fire and killed the additional SHO when the deceased officer attempted to intercept them,” a senior police officer explained.

“If in these cases [car snatching in Gulistan-e-Jauhar and motorcycle theft within the Mominabad police station remits], the police had taken the matter seriously and made efforts to trace the vehicles, their own department’s police officer, Additional SHO Rahim Khan, and Rangers sepoy, would have been alive today.”

Though a Baloch nationalist party, Balochistan Liberation Army, has claimed the responsibility of the attack on the Rangers, investigators suspect that it could be a joint operation of nationalist parties with a banned political party.

Investigators said CCTV footage showed that the suspect who parked the motorcycle was talking over a mobile phone, apparently getting instructions from someone.