KARACHI: In a third blast in as numerous weeks, a woman failed and at least 12 people sustained injuries when an extemporized explosive device (IED) attached to a motorbike went off near Boutlan Market in Kharadar late on Monday night, officers and substantiations said.
A police van passing through the celebrated Kaghzi Bazaar near Boulton Market was supposedly the target of the blast that claimed the life of a youthful woman travelling in a gharry and left a dozen others, including a police officer and an eight- time-old boy, wounded.
The police vehicle and many other vehicles, including two-wheelers and a three-wheeler, were damaged in the blast that also started a fire, showed videotape clips vented by some Television channels soon after the IED blast that took place at9.50 pm.
Head of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Trauma Centre of Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi, Dr Sabir Memon, verified that one body and 12 injured were brought to the centre. He said the condition of two of the injured was serious.
Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah before taking immediate notice of the incident declared an exigency at the Civil Hospital and sought an immediate report from the Sindh police chief.
In the meantime, the crime scene unit of the police rushed to the blast point and secured the scene where lemon disposal team officers were called to ascertain the nature of the explosion.
“ Primary report showed that the real target was the police mobile,” DIG Karachi South Sharjeel Kharal told Dawn. He said the original assessment showed the IED explosion was‘ analogous to the recent Saddar blast, but they were staying for the report of lemon disposal officers.
He said the noncommercial cloth emporium of Boulton Market was nearly closed with only many people present in the position when the lemon went off in the late hours.
Elderly officer of the counter-Terrorism Department Raja Umar Khattab said the IED, which was planted on a situated motorbike in the emporium, was exploded supposedly with a remote control device when the police vehicle braked down near it. The CTD officer said the target appeared to be the police mobile van that was damaged in the explosion.
He said the IED containing ball comportments sounded to be analogous to the one used to carry out the blast in the busy marketable area of Saddar.
Some of the injured were linked as Ahsan Mushtaq, 20, Irshad, 35, Yunus Faiz, 30, Haris Khalid, 8, Ashfaq Habib, 30, Mohammed Habib, 60, Sikander Ghous, 25, Faraz Shoaib, 25, Abdullah Jan and Ayub Habib, 40.
Assistant sub-inspector Badaruddin was also among the injured whose condition was stated to be out of peril, according to the police prophet.
This was the third terror incident in the megalopolis since April 26 when a self-murder bombing at Karachi University claimed the life of three Chinese preceptors and an original motorist. The responsibility for the deadly attack was latterly claimed by the banned Baloch Liberation Army.
Latterly on May 12, a youthful passerby was killed and 10 others suffered injuries in a bike blast targeting a sanctioned vehicle of Pakistan Coast Guards in Saddar whose responsibility was claimed by the outlawed Sindhudesh Revolutionary Army.
