GILGIT: The Ghizer police on Friday defused an eight kilogram bomb planted on a road leading to the home of the Gilgit-Baltistan Governor Peer Karam Ali Shah. The bomb was planted on the Ghizer-Ashkoman road.

A police source said that Governor Peer Karam Shah usually used the road to go his home situated at Chatorgan in Ghizer district.

`Every Friday weekend the governor`s motorcade passed through this road while coming from the Gilgit city to his home at Chatorgan,` added the source.

SP Ghizer Farman Ali told Dawn that a local person had informed Ghakoch police station that he had spotted a suspected water-cooler lying on the Ashkoman-Ghizar road, some eight kilometers from district headquarters, Ghizer.

He said that the police immediately arrived at the scene, and after finding the water-cooler on the road, blocked the road for traffic, and informed the Bomb Disposal Squad in Gilgit.

Mr Ali said that the BDS personnel found that a locally made bomb was packed inside the watercooler, and then defused it.

On the occasion, a BDS member told mediapersons that the bomb contained high intensity explosives.

He said that if exploded the bomb could have caused large scale destruction within an area of one kilometer.

The police official said that the Ghizer district was a peaceful place and that the incident was first of its 1(ind in the area.

He said that FIR of the incident had been registered with Ghahkoch police and a search operation began to nab the culprits.

Meanwhile, a police official on condition of not being named told Dawn that security agencies had informed the governor`s staff about threats to his life.