Karachi, May 25 (Reuters): A parcel bomb exploded at a container terminal in the port of the southern Pakistani city of Karachi today, killing one person and wounding four, officials said.
“It was a low intensity explosion. We are determining whether or not it was a deliberate act of terrorism,” provincial police chief Syed Kamal Khan said. Karachi, Pakistan’s biggest port and largest city, has been the scene of frequent acts of Islamic militant violence since President Pervez Musharraf joined the US-led war on terror.
Police deputy superintendent Shahnawaz Khan said the parcel bomb exploded about 100 metres inside an area used for security checks on container trucks.
Tariq Ayubi, a doctor at Karachi’s Civil Hospital, said one of the wounded was in a serious condition. The blast occurred a day after six members of an Islamic militant group that tried to assassinate Musharraf in 2002 were arrested in Karachi after a shootout. Musharraf has stepped up a battle against Islamic militancy since joining the war on terror that US President George W. Bush launched after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US.
Militants, enraged by the crackdown and Musharraf's backing of the US-led war in neighbouring Afghanistan that toppled the Taliban, have responded with repeated attacks. Musharraf survived two more assassination attempts in the city of Rawalpindi near the capital Islamabad in December. Western institutions, government officials and religious minorities have also been targeted by militants in the past three years. Earlier this month, a suicide bomber killed 15 people from Pakistan's minority Shia community and wounded 125 in a sectarian attack on a mosque in Karachi.
Radical named Opposition leader
A pro-Taliban politician was named leader of the Pakistani Opposition today, a move secular opposition groups said would strengthen Islamic extremism. The appointment of Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman, secretary general of the Islamic Muttahida MajliseAmal alliance, came after the militarybacked government threw its weight behind him. His post as leader of the Opposition in the lower house of parliament will bring with it a seat on the National Security Council.
