Posted on 01/15/2004 2:24:49 PM PST by knak
KARACHI, Pakistan Jan. 15 — A car bomb exploded outside of a Christian Bible society in southern Pakistan on Thursday, leaving 15 people injured and damaging the wall of a nearby church, officials said.
The attack in the port city of Karachi occurred after police received an anonymous phone warning that the Pakistan Bible Society would be targeted, police said. Shortly after the officers arrived, assailants in a car drove up and lobbed a small explosive device at them.
Fifteen minutes later, a bomb hidden in a nearby parked car exploded, police siad. Twelve people, among them six police and paramilitary officers, were injured, said Seemi Jamali, a doctor at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center, where many victims were taken.
Syed Kamal Shah, the chief of police of Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital, said 15 people were injured in the explosions. Police have released sketches of two male suspects based on a witness account.
Television footage showed twisted metal and shattered glass littering the street, near many of Karachi's upscale hotels.
"We were investigating the first explosion when the second explosion occurred. It was a sudden and huge explosion," said Mohammed Iqbal, a deputy superintendent of the Rangers, a paramilitary force. Iqbal spoke to The Associated Press from his hospital bed, where he was being treated for shrapnel wounds.
Shahbaz Bhatti, the head of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, said the attack had raised concerns across the country.
"This terrorist act has increased the sense of insecurity among Christians," he said. "These people are hell bent on creating anarchy in the country."
Pakistan's Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed blamed Islamic militants.
"The noose is tightening around them therefore they are carrying out these activities," he said.
Police have meanwhile arrested "more than a dozen" suspected Islamic militants for investigation into a failed Dec. 25 bid to assassinate President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, a government spokesman said Thursday.
"The men belong to various militant groups. They are in police custody. They are being questioned about the attack," Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told The Associated Press.
Karachi, Pakistan's largest city and its industrial and manufacturing heart, has been the site of several terrorist attacks in recent years, as well as bouts of sectarian and political violence.
In June 2002, a suicide bomber blew up a truck in front of the U.S. Consulate, killing 14 Pakistanis. The attack came a month after another suicide attack outside a hotel that killed 11 French engineers.
In September 2002, seven people were killed when gunmen burst into a Christian society in Karachi called the Institute of Peace and Justice, tied up everyone inside and shot them execution-style.
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