KARACHI: A girl was killed in a hand grenade attack in Lyari on Wednesday afternoon, the Napier police said.

They added that attackers threw a hand grenade that landed on the main gate of a residential compound of Mehran Apartments comprising around 100 flats.

The four-year-old girl, Zainab Hanif, was critically wounded in the explosion. She was taken to the Civil Hospital Karachi, where doctors pronounced her dead on arrival.

Requesting anonymity, a senior police officer said that as a rally of the Pakistan Peoples Party was scheduled to be held in the famous Kikri ground on April 26, gangsters had intensified their activities ostensibly to stoke fear and panic in the residents of the area.

The officer added that he suspected the involvement of the Baba Ladla gang in Wednesday’s grenade incident and also in Tuesday’s cracker attack outside the Kikri ground.

“This may be a tactic of the Baba Ladla gang to malign the rival gang led by Uzair Baloch, who is widely believed to be hostile towards Sindh’s ruling party,” the police officer said.

In the support of his opinion, he argued that when the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf gave a strike call in Karachi a few months ago, around four explosions took place in different parts of Lyari.

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2015

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