Extortion?: Construction company's office comes under cracker attack, police denies

Police say no explosive was thrown, rather the tyre of a nearby parked car had burst.

KARACHI: One person suffered minor injuries and a car was damaged when apparently a cracker exploded outside the office of a local construction company in Defence Housing Society late on Saturday in an apparent warning for not paying extortion money.

Initial reports suggested a cracker had been thrown by two unidentified men outside the office on 26^th street, Khayaban-e-Shamsheer injured one passer-by and a car parked nearby.

Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) had reached the spot and were combing the area for signs of any further explosives and the nature of the explosive thrown.

Police had cordoned off the area and were investigating the incident.

However, SP Dr Farrukh said that when the police party reached the spot, they said that they had not found any evidence to suggest an explosive had been thrown and that they had found a man tending to a burst tyre of his car.

Earlier in the day. three people were killed and half a dozen others, including two police officers, were injured during a clash between two groups in Sohrab Goth. The authorities said that the clash took place over a monetary dispute before iftar. As the police got there, the men opened fire at them and injured SHO Sultan Mehsun and SI Ahsan.