A remote controlled bomb in a motorbike has torn through a crowd of football players in a soccer-obsessed slum in the Pakistani city of Karachi, killing an estimated 10 children and teenagers.
The device detonated at 2am on yesterday after the end of a late-night game, the final of a special tournament that had run throughout the fasting month of Ramadan.
Abdul Kareem (38), a local, was knocked unconscious and hospitalised by the blast in Lyari, one of the oldest areas of the port city.
“Hundreds of people, mostly youngsters from all over Lyari, had been watching the matches and supporting their teams,” he said. “As the crowd was dispersing after the award ceremony there was a huge explosion.”
Police said seven bodies were taken to hospital; an estimated three more victims died on the spot and were thought to have been taken away by relatives.
Possible targets
The attackers may have been targeting the guest of honour, a provincial minister called Javed Nagori, who was walking towards his car at the time of the explosion.
But, in a neighbourhood notorious for its vicious gang warfare, some suspect the assault was meant to kill as many civilians as possible.
Tariq Razaq Dharejo, a senior superintendent in the Karachi police, said there were many possible suspects.
They include the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Karachi's dominant political party accused of running a militant wing that has warred with the People's Amn Committee (PAC), a banned organisation that maintains a stranglehold over Lyari's politics and underworld economy.
Other potential culprits are the Baloch Liberation Army, a militant separatist group, Islamist militants, including the Taliban, and "internal gang war". "The situation is extremely complex," he said. "The PAC has been hit by all of these other groups in the past."
Taliban influence
Taliban influence is seen as a growing threat in Karachi. Also on Tuesday night, four "wine shops", outlets allowed to sell alcohol in an otherwise dry country, were attacked with bombs despite being closed for Ramadan.
Police did not know whether militant groups or extortionists were responsible.
– (Guardian service)