Bob blast at dir but human loss recorded
DIR (Upper): A bomb blast near the scouts’ fort rocked Chukiatan town, some eight kms away from here, but did not cause any damage to the structure and all its inmates remained unscathed. A missile was also found directed at the fort.
Locals said that the town was rocked by the blast at 2am on the night between Saturday and Sunday causing fear among the fast-asleep residents. The bomb was planted in a field near the fort, locally known as Qila, but it did not inflict any harm on the cops or the premises they were living in. "The blast took place at a distance of 200 feet from the fort premises," a local informed.
Police said they had registered an FIR in the incident of a "stray missile" but expressed total ignorance about the bomb blast. "I don’t have any information about the blast," an official said when contacted.
However, he informed that an FIR had been registered by station house officer against unidentified assailants. He said some people phoned the police station saying that a missile-like weapon was lying in the Chukiatan bazaar and people had gathered around it. When the police party reached there, a crowd of people was examining it. He informed the police took the missile containing a number 9-74107-523 into custody and registered an FIR against unknown people.
However, locals said that the missile was fixed to a tree at a raised place directed towards the fort but it misfired. "Even the wick was lighted but fortunately it did not fire," a local said.
It may be mentioned that due to the violence in Swat district, the government made a couple of attempts to deploy forces in the district to ward off militants but the people resisted it. The government also accepts that Upper Dir remained the most peaceful district during the lingering turmoil in Swat showing that its people were peace loving but miscreants from Swat could sneak here to find a refuge or shift their battlefield here.
The elders had been insisting they would not allow such elements to disrupt the peace of Upper Dir. However, the blast near Scouts fort sends a meaningful signal to the people of Upper Dir. Majority of people insist the situation was deliberately being deteriorated to justify troops’ deployment, a notion that could not dispelled.