At least three people were killed and dozens of others were injured in two back-to-back blasts near a unit office of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in Karachi as incidents of pre-election violence continued to take place in various parts of the country on Saturday.
KARACHI BOMBINGS
The first blast struck near MQM Unit 153 office located in Azizabad Block 8, just a couple of kilometers away from the party’s headquarter, Nine Zero, while the second one tore through the same area minutes after.
The second bomb was reportedly much deadlier than the first blast as it targeted rescuers, law enforcers, volunteers and reporters who had thronged the attack site. The injured included a large number of women and children.
DIG of Police (West) Zafar Bukhari said it was a suicide attack.
Minutes after the attack, the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) came out with a claim, accepting responsibility for the bombings, just the way it did in the past weeks following similar attacks.
According to police sources, the bomb disposal squad did not reach the site even after the second blast.
Police said the explosive device was planted in a rickshaw, a modus operandi the terrorists reportedly used in some of their early attacks in Karachi, while the second one was strapped on a motorcycle.
The sources quoted an eyewitness as saying that the second explosion struck when a policeman challenged a motorcycle rider to stop but the biker detonated the bomb, which made the police suspect that the second blast was a suicide attack.
MQM leader Anis Qaim Khani is said to have narrowly escaped the bombing as he was in the office by the time the improvised explosive devices went off.
MQM chief Altaf Hussain vehemently denounced the bombings in Azizabad, and gave a call for mourning across Sindh on Sunday (today).
A series of bombings in recent weeks have targeted offices and candidates of the MQM, Awami National Party (ANP) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), most of which took place in Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta in the run-up to the May 11 general elections.
JI LEADER TARGETED
In Hangu, Jamaat-e-Islami candidate from NA-39, Raj Muhammad escaped a roadside bombing.
According to police, Raj was travelling to an election rally when his car struck an improvised explosive device. Raj survived the attack but his car was badly damaged in the incident.
In Peshawar, a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf election office was partially destroyed in a bomb attack.
According to police, unidentified militants had planted a three kilogramme bomb on the roadside near the PTI office. Police sources said that the target of the attack was a vehicle of the law enforcement personnel but the bomb exploded prematurely, damaging the PTI office.
BLAST AT JI OFFICE
At least two persons were injured when militants hurled a hand grenade at the electoral office of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) in Quetta.
Fayyaz Sumbal, the deputy inspector general of police, said that two militants threw a bomb at the election office of the JI in Gailani Road area of Quetta.
Sumbal said two persons were injured in the attack while the blast damaged the election office.