Terror comes back to haunt Karachiites

Six killed, over 30 wounded in bomb blast in Clifton.

KARACHI:

Explosive experts were sifting through blood-stained shoes, bolts and metal pieces torn off vehicles hours after a bomb went off outside an apartment building in an upscale neighbourhood of Karachi Friday noon. Six people were killed and over 30 others injured in the blast that happened a day after a targeted suicide attack.

Karachi witnessed a brief lull in militant violence during the time the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was observing a ceasefire. The TTP claimed responsibility for Thursday’s suicide bombing that killed Inspector Shafiq Tanoli, an encounter specialist of Karachi police. However, no group immediately claimed credit for Friday’s bombing.

According to the police, it was an improvised explosive device (IED), planted in an auto-rickshaw which was parked outside an apartment building on Chaudhry Khaliq-uz-Zaman Road, Clifton Block 8. Two mosques, belonging to the Sunni sect, are situated nearby. Police said the device was detonated at 2:30pm when people were exiting the mosques after offering Friday prayers.

The casualties were shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) where the dead were identified as 50-year-old Farah, her son Yahya, 22, Sajid Elahi, 50, Shahzad Ali, 30, Ubaidullah, 50 and Abdul Jabbar. The victims were mostly passersby, bystanders and residents from the nearby Delhi Colony.

The JPMC joint executive director, Dr Seemin Jamali, told The Express Tribune that five of the injured were in critical condition.

A Bomb Disposal Squad official said the bomb weighed 10 kilos and three kilos of bolt were also packed in the device to inflict maximum casualties. “It was a multi-directional bomb and was detonated remotely,” he added.

The police are not sure about the exact target. Since no close-circuit television cameras are installed in the vicinity, police investigators are facing problems in determining the target. Half a dozen vehicles driving past the area were damaged in the blast. However, three vehicles – two with government registration numbers – parked in the area bore the brunt.

The explosion took place moments after a bus carrying around 50 worshipers from Masjid-wa-Imambargah Yasrab drove past. The two passengers of the bus were also wounded. “We pass the area routinely. The bus pick worshippers from different areas and then drop us at the Imambargah every Friday,” Saleem, one of the injured worshipers, told The Express Tribune from his hospital bed. “Definitely, we were the target. But a disaster was averted because the driver was driving fast,” he added.

Police officials also suspected that the bus could have been the target. “Most probably, the bus was the target,” said DIG Khalique Shaikh, who is heading the investigation. “Militants of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and TTP have resumed their activities after the end of ceasefire,” he added.

DIG Shaikh said police raids on suspected hideouts of terrorists were ongoing. “It is for the government and political parties to decide on how to deal with militants,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 26^th, 2014.