KARACHI: Pakistani Taliban claimed the responsibility of a high-intensity blast targeting the Rangers Headquarters in Karachi’s North Nazimabad area early Thursday.
Tehreek-i-Taliban (TTP) Spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said that they have more targets on their list and those who would raise voices against them, the Taliban would target them.
He said that the Pakistani Taliban have their network in the country and would operate from wherever they wanted from.
According to media reports, a truck slammed into one of the entrances of the Rangers compound killing one person and leaving more than a dozen, including civilians, injured.
The injured were shifted to the city's Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.
The blast was heard across the city and fear and panic gripped the citizens. It caused damage to nearby buildings and shattered windows in the vicinity.
Senior police official Javed Odho told a television channel that the bomber had used more than 100 kilograms of explosives in the attack.
Witnesses reported seeing a large plume of smoke in the sky.
Television footage of the blast site showed what appeared to be an apartment block with a gaping hole in the middle where the bomb went off and part of the two-story building was razed.
Emergency and rescue teams had reached the site of the explosion.
A portion of a building inside the Rangers compound collapsed and caught fire and efforts were being made to put out the blaze.
Rangers created a perimeter around the building to hold off journalists and bystanders.
One of the Rangers, Muhammed Farooq, said he was preparing for work when he looked out the window and saw a vehicle smash through the main gate and into the building.
''Then there was a really big bang and I lost my balance and I saw a lot of smoke and then I lost consciousness,'' he said, speaking from the hospital.
The area was cordoned off by security forces as investigations into the incident went underway.
Governor Sindh Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan and Interior Minister Rehman Malik condemned the attack and sought a report from IG Sindh on the incident.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
