KARACHI: At least two people were killed and five others injured when a bomb attached to a parked motorcycle went off outside a mos­que of the Bohra community in Aram Bagh area on Friday.

The explosion took place when people were coming out of Saleh mosque, near Haqqani Chowk, after offering Friday prayer at about 1.55pm. Two people were killed and five injured, said Karachi-South DIG Barrister Abdul Khalique Shaikh.

The powerful blast was heard several kilometres away. It destroyed two parked motorcycles and damaged the shutters of two shops and windows of adjoining buildings.

A witness told Dawn that he had barely left the mosque when the blast took place. There were at least 400 people in the mosque. A majority of them were offering ‘Dua’ after the prayer and a few were outside the mosque.

The DIG said the mosque was located in a narrow street adjacent to the seven-storey Burhani Hospital, which was being manned by the community’s volunteers. There were barriers in lanes around it.

It appeared that someone might have parked the motorcycle outside the main gate of the mosque in the morning when there was no organised checking because there are several shops there.

Another witness said a policeman used to be on duty outside the mosque’s gate but he had not been seen over the past three weeks.

The bomb weighed around 2kg and was detonated by remote control, Raja Umer Khattab, an official of the Counter-Terrorism Depart­ment (CTD), said.

The motorbike used in the explosion belonged to one Liaquat Umer of Keamari area who was reportedly an old man and investigators were trying to locate him.

Referring to a recent attack on two shops belonging to members of the Bohra community in Bahadurabad in which one shopkeeper was killed and four others were injured, the CTD official said a militant group which had attacked the community in 2012 might have been re-activated in the city.

Seven people, including an infant, were killed in twin blasts in the Bohra compound in North Nazimabad on

Sept 18, 2012, a day after a visit to the city by the spiritual leader of the community, Syed Mufaddal Bhaisaheb Saifuddin.

Raja Umer said that no arrest had been made after the 2012 attack but it was suspected that Jundullah, and a local chapter of Al Qaeda, had been involved. The group was also allegedly involved in killing policemen in the city.

A policeman had been shot dead in Aram Bagh area and three others in Preedy area on March 10. The Karachi police chief had suspected involvement of militants in both cases because the attacks had taken place after the killing of seven suspected militants in ‘encounters’.

In the Bahadurabad incident, a police official said, the assailants had left a pamphlet there, warning the authorities to desist from killing militants in encounters and hanging them and threatening to attack Shias, Christians and law-enforcement personnel.

Those killed in Friday’s attack were identified as Shabbir Hussain, 60, and Hasnain Murtaza, 25.

Of the four injured, the condition of Abdullah, 35, and Daniyal, 25, was critical, according to a senior medico-legal officer of Civil Hospital Karachi, Dr Nisar Shah. Shabbir Saif, 45, and a passerby, Govind Kishan, 25, were discharged after first aid.

One man, Madad Ali, was admitted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre with head injuries but his condition was stable, a doctor said.

Published in Dawn March 21st , 2015

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