KARACHI, May 1: At least 20 persons, including two women and a young girl, were wounded in two separate bomb blasts here at Empress Market and Nursery on Wednesday evening.

In the major explosion 16 persons were injured when a medium-intensity explosive device rocked a shop in the Empress Market, Saddar.

The device was planted in a red chilly crate at Shaheen Masala store, located at the main passage way leading to the backside of the market, eyewitnesses said.

The blast critically injured Babu, 20, who was standing close to the crate at the time of the explosion.

An official of the bomb disposal squad said the locally-made explosive device was of 200gm and fitted with a timer device.

The injured were shifted to Civil Hospital and JPMC. Those taken to the Civil Hospital were identified as Babu, 30, Liaquat Ali, 30, Qamaruddin, 20, Ansaruddin, 70, Sharzaman, 45, Abdullah and Latif, 30.

Those shifted to the JPMC were identified as Mohammad Siddiqi, 50, Amir, 20, Kaleem, 18, Samee, 25, Nasrullah, 34, Ahsan, 53.

Two women identified as Samra Arif, 35, Asmat Bibi, 50 and a girl Mahram, 12 were also injured in the blast.

Despite being a public holiday, the market was partially open and a sizable number of shoppers were present at the time of the blast.

Following the explosion, police and rangers reached the spot and cordoned off the area to keep people away.

A large number of relatives of the victims also reached the JPMC, where Mohammad Tasleem brother of injured Kaleem, said that his brother was a labourer at the Empress Market.

Earlier, in a blast at Nursery, which occurred around 20 minutes before the Empress Market explosion, four persons were injured. The blast occurred at the Al-Khair cold drink shop in PECHS, Block-6.

The blast near a sugarcane juice machine outside the shop caused fire in a gas pipeline, the police said. However, a senior police officer of Ferozabad police station said that according to initial investigation the blast seems to have occurred in a gas pipeline passing through the shop.

But the witnesses said the explosive device was kept in a shopping bag, which was planted near a gas pipeline beside the sugarcane juice vendor.

The injured, shifted to the JPMC, were identified as Malick Ayaz Advocate, 43, Zahid Iqbal, 25, Zafar Iqbal, 35 and Mohammad Rafiq, 35.

Sindh home secretary, Brig Mukthar Ahmed, who was speaking at a press conference soon after the blasts, said that the two explosions were a normal phenomenon in Karachi and hinted that it had nothing to do with the strike call given by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.