Terrorists Target Bible Society
Friday
January 16, 2004
Huma Aamir Malik, Special to Arab News KARACHI, 16 January 2004 — Terrorists yesterday hijacked a government car, parked it outside the Bible Society here with a bomb and detonated it. Twelve people, half of them police and paramilitary officers, were injured. For maximum effect, the terrorists first threw a hand grenade at passers-by. When police reached the spot and a crowd collected, the bomb was detonated. The car of Fazal Rasool, a government employee, was hijacked in the morning in the Gulistan-e-Jauhar area. Police operations chief Tariq Jameel also said that minutes before the blast police received an anonymous phone call warning that the Pakistan Bible Society would be targeted. The injured were taken to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center, said Seemi Jamali, a doctor at the center. At least 10 nearby cars were destroyed in the attack. Television footage showed twisted metal and shattered glass littering the street outside. Firefighters doused the burning cars with hoses as thick black smoke billowed into the air. “We were investigating the first explosion when the second explosion occurred. It was a sudden and huge explosion,” said Mohammed Iqbal, 40, a deputy superintendent of the Rangers, a paramilitary force. Iqbal spoke to press from his hospital bed, where he was being treated for shrapnel wounds to his right arm, neck and chest. A large crowd of onlookers gathered quickly on a nearby street as police cordoned off the area, in an upscale area of central Karachi near many of the city’s top hotels. Salim Khursheed Khokhar, a local Christian leader, said two workers at the Bible center were injured by flying glass and the wall of the nearby Trinity Church was badly damaged. 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. We are shocked, grieved and worried,” he said. “These people are hell bent on creating anarchy in the country.” The motive for the attack was not immediately known, and the assailants got away. 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 US 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. — Additional input from agencies |
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