Asked how it works, cop pulls pin off grenade in Pak court

The grenade exploded in a Karachi anti-terror court injuring 15 people. Rajeev Sharma reports.

A truly bizarre story from Pakistan.

It happened in an anti-terrorist court in Karachi on April 11.

Anti-terrorist court no 3, was in session on Monday. A terror case hearing was on. Judge Shakeel Haider was holding court.

The police presented before him exhibits seized during an anti-terror operation. One of the exhibits was a live hand grenade which was placed in a glass jar.

The inquisitive judge asked the police officer how a hand grenade functions. The police officer was no less overzealous. He immediately took out the exhibit from the glass jar and removed the pin. And then seconds later boom!

The exhibit, a court property, exploded destroying part of the court, injuring 15 people, five of them seriously. The injured included the judge, several advocates and policemen.

Fortunately for the victims, the hand grenade had depleted explosives, else none in the court would have survived.

The incident sent shock waves through the Pakistani security establishment. An immediate fallout of the incident is that all anti-terrorist courts in Karachi have been shut down till further orders.

Obviously, the Pakistani authorities now want to put in place new standard operating procedures. This will inevitably mean having a re-look at the way court exhibits are stored and produced before a court. The incident raises a question on why live ammunition and explosives need to be produced before a court.

Perhaps this question may be relevant even in the Indian context as many of the laws are similar in both countries.

In this bizarre story it is not difficult to determine who was at greater fault: The judge or the police officer who took the pin off the live hand grenade. Obviously, the police officer should have known better and warned about the consequences.

If the judge were still to insist on arriving at the veracity of the police claims about the type of weapons seized from terrorists, considering the growing pro-activism of the judiciary in Pakistan, the police officer should have ensured that a live demo was arranged for the judge in a controlled situation, not inside a court room.

This is not the only incident which shows the Pakistani police force in poor light. Some years ago, a truck bomb, driven by a suicide bomber, was allowed entry inside the police lines in Karachi.

In that incident, the explosives-laden truck was duly stopped by the alert guard at the entry point. The driver said the truck was carrying gifts for children of police personnel living in the complex on occasion of Eid which was over four days earlier. He explained that in view of the disturbed conditions he could not bring the gifts on Eid.

The security guard telephoned his senior officer who told him to send the truck in, stating who thinks of police personnel's welfare these days.

The truck went rammed into the office complex blowing up everything in the vicinity. Many police personnel were killed, including the senior officer who had permitted its entry.

Rajeev Sharma is an independent journalist and author of several books on Pakistan. He tweets @Kishkindha