KARACHI: A passer-by was killed while five others, including two women and a child, were injured in a powerful roadside bomb blast in the Korangi Crossing area on Tuesday, police and hospital officials said.

They added that a motorcycle rigged with an explosive device was parked on the main road and the explosive device blew up hitting a passing rickshaw and injuring six people.

The victims were taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where doctors pronounced 40-year-old Habib Ahmed dead on arrival. The five others — rickshaw driver Amin and passengers Saleem, Aslam, Ms Zarin, Ms Rozina and child Ayesha — were admitted for treatment.

All victims sustained injuries caused by pellets while they also received burn wounds, said head of the emergency department of the hospital Dr Seemin Jamali.

It was a five-kilogramme bomb kept under the seat of an old motorcycle parked on the main road, which was detonated through a mobile phone, said DIG-East Munir Ahmed Shaikh.

The exact motive for the blast could not be ascertained immediately, added the senior officer.

He said a truck carrying personnel of the Rapid Response Force was supposed to travel on the same route, but it was at a considerable distance from the site when the blast occurred.

At present it might be premature to say that the police personnel were its target, the police added.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2014