Police said the explosion was caused by an improvised explosive device and suspected the involvement of a banned outfit, the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LJ).
Inspector General of Police, Sindh, Iqbal Mehmood, told The News that the bomb blast took place in a rickshaw and the intended target seemed to be a bus of worshippers coming from an Imambargah.
He added that he had formed a committee whose members were Deputy Inspectors General of South Range, Crime Investigation Agency, Crime Investigation Department, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Raja Umer Khattab and SSP Niaz Ahmed Khosa and ordered them to nab the terrorists at the earliest.
However, other police officers were not so sure that the bus was the actual target.Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), District South, Nasir Aftab, said the deceased were passers-by. No government or semi-government office, Masjid or Imambargah were located at the spot where the explosion took place, so it was premature to say what the actual target of the terrorists was.
He said that six people — Sajjid, Shahzad, Abdul Jabbar, Abdullah, Farah and her son Yahya — succumbed to their injuries during treatment while 30 others including Ghulam Shabbir, Dilawar, Abdul Jabar, Shakeel, Faisal, Jahanzeb, Saif Ul Hasan, Zubair, Iqbal, Nadeem, Saleem, Abdullah and Abdur Rehman were injured.
Farah, along with her son, was traveling in a rickshaw when they became a victim of the blast. The deceased had recently shifted to the Dehli Colony from Gulshan-e-Hadeed.
The SSP said the police cordoned off the crime scene and moved the injured to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC).
He said that they had collected evidence, adding the worshippers were returning from the Yasrab Masjid after offering the Friday prayers when suddenly a huge explosion took place near a car showroom.
In the explosion, about 10 vehicles, including three government vehicles, two rickshaws, five motorcycles and windowpanes of nearby buildings were damaged. Some under-construction buildings were also damaged.
The BDS in its report stated that the bomb was an IED, which was planted inside a rickshaw parked on the main road. The bomb contained about 10-13 kilogrammes of explosives with nuts and bolts. SSP Nasir said that they had initially collected 100 nuts and bolts from the scene of the crime and sent them to the forensic division of the Sindh Police.
Regarding the three government vehicles damaged in the explosion, SSP Aftab said that the vehicles were driven by drivers and they belonged to culture and other government departments and no threat to them was found. However, they were investigating it from different angles.
SP Raja Umer Khattab, talking to The News, said that Shia worshippers who worked at an insurance company had visited a Masjid to offer prayers. He added that at the time of the explosion, the bus was passing through the road. Two passengers of the bus were injured in the explosion.
He suspected that the terrorists might have had attempted to target the bus with a remote control but luckily the passengers remained unhurt. SP Khattab said that the banned LJ might be involved in the Gizri explosion.
Meanwhile, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan have taken a serious notice of the bomb blast that occurred on Friday in the city.
They directed the Inspector General of Police and Rangers to probe these incidents and identify the criminal group and take drastic action against them.
Online adds: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief, Altaf Hussain, has strongly condemned the blast near a mosque in Delhi Colony.
In a statement issued on Friday, he said those killing innocent people on the occasion of Jumma prayer were the enemies of Islam and humanity and wanted to destabilise Pakistan through terrorism and bloodshed.
He said that the government was holding talks with terrorists instead of taking action against them, a joke with the nation.
The MQM chief said that the nation cannot get rid of militancy and terrorism until stern action is taken against these terrorists.
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