Daily Dawn
1st July 2004
Jihadi outfit
suspected in Karachi rocket attack
KARACHI, June 30:
Police said on Wednesday they suspected involvement of a jihadi organization in
a rocket attack on a marriage lawn in the city on Monday.
A police officer told Dawn that a 'live rocket', found in a ground in Hijrat
Colony, was defused and examined by a bomb disposal squad and bomb experts were
of the view that the rocket was actually a short-range surface-to-surface
ballistic missile of 8 to 12km range.
The Russian-made three-foot-long missile was capable of carrying a warhead. It
appeared to be new, indicating that a fresh consignment of such missiles might
have been smuggled into the city, the police officer added.
The missile, that hit the marriage lawn near the Guru Mandir roundabout on
Monday night, had been fired from a ground launcher in Hijrat Colony near the
PIDC bridge. It traversed a distance of about 10km and landed at the 'Data
Lawn'. The missile produced a deafening sound at both ends.
The police officer said: "We suspect that Harkatul Mujahideen Al-Alami was
behind the attack because they had the training to use such weaponry. Activists
of the jihadi outfit were trained to fire ballistic missile."