KARACHI, 19 September 2006 — Two persons, including a child, were killed and five injured when a bomb went off in the Orangi Town area of Karachi. All the five injured were children who were identified as Sehrish, Laiba, Kashif, Hina and Kanwal.
In Quetta, a bomb exploded in a crowded bazaar yesterday, injuring two policemen and three civilians, police said.
The “low-intensity” device blew up in a shop in Quetta’s crowded Meezan Chowk market, police official Manzoor Bhatti told AFP.
One policeman from Pakistan’s Frontier Constabulary was seriously injured while the other victims had light shrapnel wounds and were being treated at a government hospital, he said. Police said a suspect had been arrested.
The blast could be heard from a public meeting organized by opposition parties to protest the killing of key tribal insurgent leader Nawab Akbar Bugti, about half a kilometer away, witnesses said.
No one claimed responsibility for the blast but impoverished Balochistan province, of which Quetta is the capital, has been tense since Bugti’s death.
The ageing chieftain had led tribal rebels in a violent two-year campaign for autonomy and a greater share of revenue from Balochistan’s natural resources.
