Swat CTD blast caused by short circuiting, not terrorism: KP IGP

MINGORA    –    The Khyber Pakh­tunkhwa police said yesterday that Mon­day’s mysterious explo­sion at a counter-terror­ism department (CTD) office in the Kabal area of Swat Valley was caused by short circuit of electric wires inside the building and not be­cause of terrorism.

The bomb blast on Monday last had left around 17 CTD person­nel dead and 51 others wounded amid an ongo­ing rescue operation till the filing of this report.

“The incident was caused by short circuit­ing that triggered explo­sives reportedly stored in the CTD station,” ex­plained Inspector Gen­eral of Police Akhtar Hayat while talking to media here.

The IGP maintained that police officials were investigating the “negligence” and other aspects of the blast. The blasting, ac­cording to the police report, took place at a weapons stor­age facility at the CTD centre. However, there is a perception among locals that it is a terrorist act. “I was inside the police sta­tion when the blasts took place. Moments before the blast, I di­alled my house phone number but the mobile network was not working. And then there were blasts outside the weap­ons storage facility, not inside it, because I was inside the weap­ons storage area,” stated an in­jured cop while speaking to me­dia persons at the hospital. 

The recent bombings at the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) Police Station in Swat dis­trict have led to an explosion of public anger as Swat Olasi Pa­soon and Swat Qaumi Jirga held public rallies, questioning the role of security forces in the face of worsening law and order in the province. 

Soon after the explosions, people from various walks of life condemned the blasts, call­ing for rallies in Kabal and Min­gora bazaars. Swat Olasi Pasoon (Swat Public Uprising) organ­ised the protest at Kabal Bazaar, while Swat Quami Jirga organ­ised a rally at Nishat Chowk in Mingora town.

Fawad Khan, Aftab Khan, Na­zif Lala, Muhammad Ali Dagiw­al, Idrees Bacha, Khurshid Kaka Ji, Mukhtiyar Yousafzai, Dr Kha­lid, Abdul Jabbar Khan, Ayoub Asharey, Hameedul Haq, Irfan Chattan, and others from Swat Olasi Pasoon addressed the crowds. A big number of peo­ple from around Swat attend­ed the protests to condemn the attacks. They called for long-term peace in Swat and oth­er Pashtun belt, and stated that the people of Malakand division would no longer be duped by terrorism plays. 

“We don’t believe the explo­sion at the weapons storage fa­cility was caused by an electri­cal short circuit. Looking at the ground reality and facts, it does not appear to be a short cir­cuit blast, but rather a planned act of terrorism,” stated one of the speakers, adding that if it was believed to be an acciden­tal blast at the weapons storage facility, it would be an unprece­dented irresponsible act.

Article source: https://www.nation.com.pk/26-Apr-2023/swat-ctd-blast-caused-by-short-circuiting-not-terrorism-kp-igp