KARACHI: A remote-controlled bomb planted in a motorbike exploded near the Sachal Rangers headquarters in North Nazimabad, causing injuries to seven people including two young women on Wednesday morning, officials said.

The Rangers believed that the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan was involved in the blast. The paramilitary force claimed to have killed one of the suspects involved in the blast in a shootout in Manghopir in the evening.

The bomb, which weighed between four and five kilograms, was detonated at 8.40am, apparently with the nearby Rangers office as its main target, said DIG West Javed Alam Odho.

He added that it could be the reaction to the paramilitary force’s targeted operations against suspected militants.

The victims were identified as Mohammed Khan, his 18-year-old Mohammed Irfan, Khalida, 30, Nadeem Irshad, 55, Ambreen, 20, while two others who sustained slight injuries remained unidentified, according to additional police surgeon of the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where they were shifted following the blast.

He said the condition of two victims, Mohammed Khan and Nadeem Irshad, was serious.

The morning attack was targeted at Rangers personnel, who might have passed through the area, but the militants missed their target, believed Raja Umer Khattab, the head of the counterterrorism unit of the CID police.

“It was detonated through a remote control,” the officer added.

This was the third terror attack near the Sachal Rangers headquarters in the recent past. On Jan 29, two Rangers personnel and a private guard of the PTCL were killed when a suicide bomber targeted the Rangers office gate. While at least three personnel of the paramilitary force were killed in another suicide bombing at the same place on Nov 8, 2012.

In the evening on Wednesday, the Rangers acting on intelligence information about the hideout of the TTP suspects involved in the blast in the Manghopir area raided the place near Ijtimahgah and in an ensuing encounter killed one of them, while another suspect managed to flee.

The deceased was identified as Saifullah, the Rangers said, while claiming to have seized a huge cache of explosives besides a hand grenade and a rifle.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2014