Bomb suspect injured in blast near Karachi park

A suspected extremist was arrested in the southern port city of Karachi overnight while trying to plant a bomb that blew up and injured him. The blast was the latest in a relentless chain of attacks in Pakistan's largest and most violent city, where five bloody strikes on Christian and Western targets last year left 37 people dead, including two suicide bombers.

"Allah has helped us. The terrorist himself became the victim of his own ghastly design," Ali Asghar, deputy superintendent of police, told reporters minutes after the blast near Alladin Park in the Gulshan-e-Iqbal neighbourhood.

The blast occurred at around midnight, creating a scare in the middle class neighbourhood.
The suspect, Mohammed Riaz, who also sustained wounds to his chest besides losing his left hand, was rushed to Jinnah Hospital. He is now in police custody.

Riaz, who is in his mid 20s, told reporters, "I found a bag which contained the bomb." But police officials, who recovered three unexploded crude bombs at the same site, said Riaz was lying. "I am 100 per cent sure that he was behind the blast,"Asghar said.

Police sources said Riaz belongs to the outlawed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group, which is blamed by police for most of the terrorist activities in Pakistan. Police raided Riaz's house in Korangi soon after and seized 12 bags of chemicals used for making bombs, fuses, detonators, bomb wiring kit, they said.

Five people, who were present in the house, were arrested, they said. The suspects have been identified as Abdul Karim, Riaz's father and Mohammed Javed, his uncle. The other three are Mohammed Ali, Rashid and Arshad.

A senior police investigator said that all the suspects are being grilled. "The aim of the blast was not to kill people, but to create terror," he said.

Police investigators say the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is now operating under the new name of United Muslim Army, which claimed the responsibility of last month's series of small bomb explosions at 19 Shell and two Caltex petrol stations. Those attacks were also aimed to create panic rather than to kill people, the investigator said.