11 people killed, over 40 injured in Karachi blast

Eleven people were killed and over 40 others, many of them women and children, were injured when a blast occurred near a bus taking a group of Shias to a religious procession in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi on Friday.

The explosion occurred on Shahrah—e—Quaideen, a key thoroughfare in the city, at 3.05 PM.

Simi Jamali, a senior doctor at the Jinnah Hospital, said the they had received 11 bodies and over 40 injured people.

There was confusion over the nature of the blast.

TV news channels quoted witnesses as saying that a motorcycle-borne suicide bomber rammed into the bus.

However, Karachi police chief Waseem Ahmed said initial investigations had indicated that an explosive device planted in the motorcycle was triggered by remote control as the bus was passing by.

Mr. Ahmed appealed for calm and urged Shia mourners to go ahead with the main procession marking the ‘Chelum’ or 40th day of the martyrdom of Hazrat Imam Hussain.

He said the blast had occurred at a considerable distance from the venue of the main procession and might have been aimed at diverting the attention of the security forces.

Ambulances and rescue workers rushed to the site and ferried bodies and the injured to nearby hospitals.

Security forces cordoned off the area and gathered the pieces of the motorcycle believed to have been used in the attack.