KARACHI: Three pupils were killed and four others injured in an explosion inside a seminary in Orangi Town here on Monday.

Mominabad police said it was an ‘accident’, but the seminary administration and a religious party insisted that it was an act of terrorism.

According to an official of the bomb disposal squad, a China-made hand-grenade weighing 250-300 grams went off inside a classroom of the madressah.

The injured were taken to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where doctors pronounced three of them dead. They were identified as Umer Khan, 12; Zahid, 14; and Salman, 11.

The injured included Ismail, 7; his brother Ibrahim, 12; Zaid, 12, and Mubashir. The condition of Ismail was said to be critical and Zaid was shifted to a private hospital.

Karachi West SSP Irfan Baloch quoted injured Mubashir as saying that the deceased Salman had brought the grenade to the seminary from a ‘nullah’ (storm water drain) and they were playing with it in their room when it exploded.

But the administration of Jamia Islamia Tahiria told reporters that two men on a motorcycle had given the grenade to Salman and said it was a ‘gift’ for the head of the seminary.

The SSP said it was a Deobandi madressah politically affiliated with Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F.

JUI-F’s Karachi leader Qari Usman told Dawn it did not matter whether the grenade was found in the seminary or it had been given to a student. It was an act of terrorism which should be thoroughly investigated to identity the perpetrators and ascertain their motive.

He said that since its establishment in 2000, the seminary had not received any threat.

The incident triggered protests by charged students outside the seminary and the hospital.