Officer demonstrated how pin could be removed from detonator moments after assuring court device had been defused

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A policeman in Pakistan accidentally exploded a bomb in an anti-terrorism court after attempting to demonstrate a grenade detonator to the judge.

Constable Liaquat Ali was injured by the blast moments after he assured the judge that the piece of evidence had been disarmed.

Court assistant Shoaib Ahmed was also hurt by shrapnel wounds to his hand and head, while the judge fell off his chair, witnesses said.

The anti-terror court in Karachi had been shown evidence against a man accused of fighting police. Among the weapons captured at the time of his arrest and displayed in court were heavy weapons, hand grenades and explosives.

Muhammad Islam, a court official, said the officer was trying to counter an argument by the defence that the detonator, which one official said had been separated from the grenade, was too complex for the defendant to know how to use.

Ali demonstrated the ease with which the pin could be removed from the detonator just after assuring the court that the device had been defused.

The explosion sparked panic in the rest of the building, where other anti-terrorism cases are held. “We thought the whole building was under attack from terrorists,” said Farhan Haider, a lawyer who had been in a courtroom next door. “Everyone was just rushing towards the exits.”

The blast injured Ali’s hands but he was swiftly discharged from hospital after treatment. The trial was immediately suspended while a bomb disposal unit was called to check the rest of the evidence.

Rafique Awan, a police officer, said a case had been registered against Ali for mishandling evidence, which should have been supervised by a bomb squad officer.

In August last year, a prisoner accused of bomb plots succeeded in escaping mid-trial from Karachi’s anti-terrorism courts, which were set up in 1997 to fast-track terror cases. Reports said he gave his police guard the slip and walked out of the building.