KARACHI, May 2: A boy was killed and five persons were wounded when four bombs exploded in various parts of the city on Thursday.

Besides, a strike called by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement left most business centres closed, public transport off the roads and educational activities suspended.

Police raided the MQM headquarters in Azizabad and picked up former legislators Aftab Shaikh, Nasreen Jalil and Shoaib Bokhari. Later, the former two were released.

One of the four bombs went off in the house of an Afghan junk dealer, Yunus, in Abyssinia Lines early in the morning, killing the boy and wounding four others in the family.

Yunus’s house was adjacent to his junk yard where the bomb, lying in the scrap, exploded. The roof of the house collapsed when the bomb exploded.

The wounded were taken to a hospital where Shamsul Rehman, 12, was found dead. Others were identified as Amrilla, 16, Shireen, 10, Saeed Hasan, an infant, and their mother Farhat.

A teenage rag-picker lost his hand when a low-intensity bomb exploded in the Samanabad police limits. Witnesses said the man had picked up something which exploded in his hand. He was taken to the nearby Al Noor Hospital where he received first aid before being shifted to a government hospital.

The third blast occurred near the Dalton Super Market in the Defence Housing Authority. The windowpanes of vehicles were shattered. A similar blast took place at the Defence Khadda Market, spreading terror in the locality. The police said the two blasts were caused by powerful fire-crackers.

The strike was called by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement to mourn the death of its two former parliamentarians, Mustapha Kamal Rizvi and Dr Nishat Mallick. The two were shot dead at Sunset Boulevard in the DHA on April 26.

Earlier on the eve of the strike, 20 people suffered injuries in two bomb blasts at Empress Market and Nursery.