Four killed in Karachi blast, TTP claims reponsibility
DAWN.COM | 1 day ago 0
Four killed in Karachi blast, TTP claims reponsibility | Latest-News | DAWN.COM
A police officer, left, talks on the radio while cameramen film the site of a blast in Karachi. – Photo by AP
KARACHI: Four people were killed and at least 42 others had been injured in a blast in Karachi’s Federal B Area locality on Tuesday, DawnNews reported.
The blast, which took place near Federal B Area’s Aisha Manzil, was heard as far as Karachi’s Numaish area. The injured were shifted to hospitals and police had reached the site of the explosion that reportedly took place near a furniture market.
The bomb appeared to have been planted on a motorbike parked within the vicinity of the blast site. Police sources said that the explosion was caused by a remote-controlled bomb.
Sources said that some of the injured are in critical condition and that one of the people who was killed was a Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) worker.
The outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan has claimed responsibility for the attack on the rally in Karachi and has warned that it will carry out more attacks on MQM workers and leaders.
The TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan speaking to Dawn.Com said that their activists had targeted the MQM workers and that the attack was a warning, stating that more attacks are likely to come after it.
He also cautioned the general public to avoid participating in MQM and Awami National Party (ANP) rallies, otherwise they would be responsible for their losses.
The blast has been strongly condemned by a number of political figures, including President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, MQM chief Altaf Hussain and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif.
The MQM’s Coordination Committee announced that a day of mourning will be observed on Wednesday in the aftermath of the explosion. They said that transport and business activities will not be suspended during the day of mourning.
Tuesday’s explosion took place days after a powerful blast inside an inter-city bus near Karachi’s Cantonment Railway Station killed at least six people and left at least 50 others, including women and children, injured.
Aid groups demand greater protection after Swabi attack
AFP | 2 hours ago 0
Aid groups demand greater protection after Swabi attack | Pakistan | DAWN.COM
Pakistani relatives mourn next to a body of a charity worker following an attack by gunmen in Swabi on January 1, 2013. – AFP Photo
PESHAWAR: Aid groups Wednesday demanded greater protection in Pakistan amid concerns of a new spike in violence after seven charity workers were shot dead and their organisation suspended operations.
The six women — five of them teachers and one a health visitor — and a male health technician were ambushed by gunmen on motorbikes on Tuesday as they were returning from a community centre in northwestern district Swabi.
They were buried on Wednesday. A four-year-old boy was spared when the gunmen removed him from the same vehicle before spraying it with gunfire, police said.
The attack — which has not been claimed — adds to fears that charity workers are increasingly vulnerable, particularly in the northwest which is badly affected by Taliban and al Qaeda-linked violence.
The charity, Support With Working Solution, has temporarily suspended its operations, police told AFP.
“The NGO has suspended its activities for three days to mourn the deaths. They will decide after three days whether to start work again or not,” said Abdul Rashid Khan, the police chief of Swabi.
The organisation runs dozens of health and education projects, including polio vaccinations, in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Health and education programmes, particularly those for girls, are seen as being at particular risk.
Last month, nine polio vaccine workers were shot dead in a string of incidents, forcing UN agencies to suspend an immunisation campaign, and there are now concerns about a record number of deaths from measles in the south.
On Wednesday, an umbrella organisation of around 200 charities in the northwest demanded better protection, but vowed to continue working in order not to encourage “those who are opposed to progress”.
“We have to stand up and foil the nefarious designs of anti-state elements who are bent upon destroying the fabric of civil society. We all have to strengthen our voice otherwise we will perish,” said the Pakhtunkhwa Civil Society Network.
It demanded government protection for charity workers “vulnerable to the menace of terrorism” but some charity workers express doubt about government capacity.
On December 22, Bashir Bilour, a senior minister in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and eight others were killed in a suicide attack on a political meeting claimed by the Taliban.
“How can a state protect its people if it can’t protect its ministers?” asked Imran Takkar, programme manager of the Society for the Protection of the
Rights of the Child.
Islamabad says more than 35,000 people have been killed as a result of terrorism in the country since the 9/11 attacks on the United States.
Imtiaz Iltaf, police chief of Peshawar, said officers were preparing a strategy to protect aid workers.
“We are in a state of war. The whole country is facing an insurgency, so we are revising the present security steps and working on a new strategy,” he said.
you still cant see the blood?
