KARACHI/ISLAMABAD: One person was killed and 37 others injured in a string of six bomb blasts in Pakistan’s volatile southern port city of Karachi, police told AFP. The series of explosions came a day after a suicide bomb killed 19 people near a rally in Islamabad to mark the first anniversary of the bloody storming of the radical Red Mosque in the capital.
“One person was killed and at least 30 injured in a series of low intensity bomb blasts in the Pashtun-dominated areas in Karachi,” local police officer Mohammad Saqlain told AFP. Seven children were among the wounded, he said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blasts.
“Apparently the purpose was to create panic in the city. There is also a possibility that these people who planted the bombs wanted to fan ethnic tensions in the city,” provincial police chief Babar Khattak told AFP. “Bomb disposal teams have been sent to the sites of the explosions to determine their nature,” Khattak said.
Karachi has seen a number of deadly attacks blamed on various Islamic militant and political groups since Pakistan joined the US-led “war on terror” in 2001. The sprawling city of 12 million people also remains riven by ethnic tensions between Pashtuns originally hailing from the northwestern frontier region with Afghanistan and other groups.
In Sunday’s blast in Islamabad, a bomber blew himself up in a crowd of policemen deployed to provide security for an Islamist rally commemorating more than 100 people killed in the siege and storming of the Red Mosque.
Investigators yesterday discovered the head of the suspected bomber as they made fingertip searches of the scene, security officials said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility but officials said they were examining a range of possible culprits, including the mosque’s former students and Taleban.
The attack has raised questions about the new government’s security policy and will increase concern about prospects for the country, a nuclear-armed US ally making a transition to civilian rule. Bhutto’s widower, Asif Ali Zardari, who took over as leader of the party after his wife’s murder, said in a statement those behind Sunday’s “despicable” attack were trying to create chaos.
“Pakistan People’s Party realizes the grave threat that such terrorist activities pose to the country and the PPP government will do everything possible to check the activities of such elements and those responsible will be brought to justice.”
President Pervez Musharraf, whose power has withered since his allies were defeated in a February election and who has been facing calls to step down, warned on Friday that more radical mosques would emerge if extremism and militancy were not tackled.
