Islamabad: A suicide bomber attacked the headquarters of a paramilitary Rangers force in Karachi early Thursday, killing three personnel and injuring more than 20, police and reports said.
Driving a pick-up truck laden with explosives, the attacker smashed through the main gate of the complex in the city’s North Nazimabad area.
The assailant targeted a residential building at the complex, Rangers spokesman Major Sibtain Rizvi said, adding that two of the wounded troops succumbed to injuries at a hospital.
Senior police officer Khurram Waris said it was a suicide attack and at least 150kg of explosive was used causing the huge blast.
A Rangers personnel Mohammad Farooq said he was preparing for work when he looked out the window and saw a vehicle crashing through the main gate and into a building. “There was a big bang. I saw a lot of smoke and then I lost consciousness.”
The Rangers force is deployed in Karachi, capital of Sindh province to work in tandem with the police for curbing crime and long-running wave of targeted killings in the city of about 20 million inhabitants, with a history of ethnic, political and sectarian violence.
Three more people including a policeman were short dead Thursday in Karachi. Nearly 2,000 people have been reportedly killed in the city this year alone in incidents of targeted shootings and other violence acts.
The attack on the Rangers headquarters was the second in Karachi on a military installation after last year’s assault by militants on a base of the Pakistan navy in the city.
Following recent reports of an influx of Taliban militants into Karachi, the country’s Supreme Court directed the authorities to take “serious notice” of the infiltration.
The Karachi-based Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), the second largest party in Sindh, plans to organise an unofficial referendum on November 14 on whether people want Taliban ideology or a progressive Islamic welfare polity in line with the vision of founder of the nation, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
The banned Tehrik-i-Taliban outfit has reportedly threatened to target MQM, a major partner in the Sindh ruling coalition led by the Pakistan People’s Party.
