Blast rocks an already tense Karachi

Two people killed, two injured in blast near mosque.

KARACHI: At least two people were killed and another two injured in a roadside blast in the Pirabad area of Orangi Town, Karachi, Thursday evening.

The explosion was heard in various areas of Karachi, unsettling a city already on edge in the wake of MQM chief Altaf Hussain's arrest and subsequent reactions of aerial firing and protests.

According to the police, the blast occurred outside the Jama-e-Mustafa mosque in Qasba Colony, in the limits of Pirabad police station. The bomb was placed inside a rickshaw that was parked on a road near the mosque.

DIG West Capt (retd.) Tahir Naveed, while speaking to The Express Tribune, confirmed the casualties, and said, “Initial investigation shows that the bomb was an Improvised Explosive Device fitted in the rickshaw. He added that the police also found a hand grenade from the blast site, which was then defused.

The bomb disposal squad of the Sindh police is further searching the site and collecting evidence.  The DIG said that the blast did not take place exactly outside the mosque, but fairly close to it.

The injured have been shifted to the Abbassi Shaheed Hospital.

Earlier, Express News reported that the Ahle Sunnat wal Jamaat (ASWJ) had claimed that two of its workers were killed in the blast, while five were injured.

This post will be updated as developments come in.