MQM Azizabad office bombings kill 3, injure over 45

KARACHI: At least three people were killed and dozens of others were injured in two back-to-back blasts near a unit of office of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in Azizabad which is also home to the party’s Headquarter, Nine Zero.

Reportedly the first blast struck near MQM Unit 153 office located in Azizabad Block 8, just a couple of kilometers away from its headquarter, Nine Zero, while the second one tore through the same area about 30 minutes later.

The second bomb was be even deadlier as it went off as the rescuers, law enforcers, volunteers, and mediamen thronged the attack site.

DIG of Police (West) Zafar Bukhari first said it was a suicide attack, however, later it was found out to be an improvised explosive device (IED) concealed in a concrete block, which was detonated either by a cell phone signal or a remote control.

The outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility of today’s bombings, just the way it did in the past weeks following similar attacks. TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan took the credit of the bombings, reportedly, over the telephone.

Earlier, the TTP had declared democracy as un-Islamic and issued threats of attacks on MQM, ANP and PPP.

The police said the improvised explosive device (IED), which detonated first was planted in a rickshaw, a modus operandi the terrorists reportedly used in some of their early attacks in Karachi.

However, the second IED, which was first reported to be a motorcycle bomb, later turned out a bike-riding suicide bomber who blew himself up near his target, but the final reports said the bomb was hidden inside a concrete block.

The sources quoted an eyewitness as saying that the second explosion struck when a policeman challenged a motorcycle rider to stop but the biker detonated himself, which made the second blast look like a suicide attack.

The bomb disposal squad arrived very late at the scene.

The emergency responders shifted most of the injured to Abbassi Shaheed Hospital. A number of women, children, MQM workers, pressmen, policemen, Rangers were among the injured, sources added.

A spokesman for the Sindh Rangers, said three of their personnel deployed near the bombing site were also among the injured.

Hospital sources said more than a dozen of the critically injured were in the emergency room's operation theater.

Later, some of the serious cases were shifted to Aga Khan University Hospital.

MQM leader Anees Qaim Khani is said to have narrowly escaped the bombing as he was in the office by the time the improvised explosive devices went off.

MQM Chief Altaf Hussain has vehemently denounced the bombings in Azizabad which also houses his party’s Headquarters.

The blast smashed the window panes of the building surrounding the crime scene.

A series of bombings in recent weeks have targeted offices and candidates of MQM, Awami National Party (ANP) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), most of which took place in Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta in the run-up to the May 11 general elections.