By Aamir Latif
KARACHI, Pakistan (AA): At least two people were killed and ten injured in a bomb explosion in southern port city of Karachi on late Friday, police said. However, soon after the blast, Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) officials defused a second bomb, with at least two kilograms of explosives. Officials said the second bomb would have been more destructive.
“The home-made explosive device weighed two kilograms,” said BDS officials.
Initial investigations suggested that the bomb was planted underneath a handcart in a makeshift market in the eastern outskirt of Karachi, Quaidabad locality, Irfan Bahadur, the city police chief, told media.
Bahadur said the bomb was detonated through a remote control. At least 500 grams of explosives were used in the home-made explosive device.
Karachi police chief Ameer Sheikh said some vendors at a makeshift market were selling fruit and other items of daily use near the Quaidabad flyover when the bomb went off nearby.
Footage aired on local broadcaster Geo News showed rescue workers shifting the dead and injured into the ambulances as blood-soaked pieces of clothes, shoes, glasses, and other belongings were scattered on the road and the sidewalks.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
Karachi, the country’s most populous city and the commercial capital, has long been notorious for sectarian and political violence and gang wars that have killed thousands over the last three decades.
However, the security forces have managed to reduce the level of violence following a military-backed operation launched in 2013 in the metropolis.
Additional report from Pakistani media
[Map of Pakistan from the CIA factbook/Public Domain]