AFP/Karachi
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility yesterday for twin bomb attacks targeting Shias in Karachi overnight that killed at least six people and wounded 35 others.
Shahidullah Shahid, a spokesman for umbrella group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), said that the attacks in Pakistan’s largest city were carried out in revenge for violence in Rawalpindi on November 15.
He said the attacks were aimed at Shiites in Karachi, and vowed further violence.
“It was to avenge the Rawalpindi incident, we will carry out more such attacks to avenge the killing of Sunnis,” Shahid said by telephone from an undisclosed location.
Fighting erupted in the garrison-city of Rawalpindi, which neighbours the capital Islamabad, earlier this month when a procession by Shias to mark the most important day of the mourning month of Moharram coincided with a sermon at a nearby Sunni mosque.
The groups clashed with each other, TV cameramen and security forces. Officials said 11 people were killed and more than 60 injured while a Sunni mosque and seminary and an adjacent cloth market were burnt, with Sunni groups blaming Shia protesters.
Thousands of people in major cities across Pakistan, including Karachi, protested amid high security on Friday after Sunni groups called for demonstrations against the Rawalpindi violence.
The explosions overnight in Karachi on Friday took place within minutes of each other in the city’s bustling, predominantly Shiite neighbourhood of Ancholi.
“At least six people were killed and some 35 wounded. Four among the dead were Shia,” senior police official Javed Odho said in Karachi, updating an earlier report of five killed and 18 injured.
Karachi is a city of 18mn people which contributes 42% of Pakistan’s GDP.
People survey the site of a bomb blast in Karachi yesterday.
