A suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vest close to a van carrying Japanese autoworkers in Pakistan’s port metropolis of Karachi on Friday, police mentioned. They narrowly escaped the assault however three bystanders had been wounded.
Individually, an Afghan Taliban non secular scholar was killed in an assault within the southwest of Pakistan the day before today.
The assault on the van occurred when it was heading to an industrial space the place the 5 Japanese nationals labored at Pakistan Suzuki Motors, native police chief Arshad Awan mentioned. He mentioned police escorting the Japanese returned hearth after coming below assault, killing an confederate of the suicide bomber whose stays had been discovered on the scene of the assault.
12 ARRESTED IN CONNECTION TO PAKISTAN SUICIDE BOMBING THAT KILLED 5 CHINESE NATIONALS
“All of the Japanese who had been the goal of the assault are protected,” Awan mentioned.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif denounced the assault. In separate statements, they praised police for rapidly responding and foiling the assault. Additionally they vowed to remove terrorism and prayed for the speedy restoration of the wounded.
Photos on native information channels confirmed a broken van as cops arrived on the scene. Awan mentioned the three passersby who had been wounded within the assault had been in secure situation at a hospital.
CORRECTS DATE – Pakistani investigators look at a broken van on the web site of a suicide assault in Karachi, Pakistan, Friday, April 19, 2024. 5 Japanese nationals touring in a van narrowly escaped a suicide assault when a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vest close to their car in Pakistan’s port metropolis of Karachi on Friday, wounding three passers-by, police mentioned. (AP Photograph/Fareed Khan)
Police had been escorting the van after receiving experiences about potential assaults on foreigners who’re working in Pakistan on varied Chinese language-funded and different initiatives, mentioned Tariq Mastoi, a senior police officer. He mentioned a well timed and fast response from the guards and police foiled the assault and each attackers had been killed.
Nobody instantly claimed accountability, however suspicion is prone to fall on a small separatist group or the Pakistani Taliban who’ve stepped up assaults on safety forces in recent times. Insurgents have additionally focused Chinese language who’re working in Pakistan on initiatives referring to the China-Pakistan Financial Hall, which features a multitude of megaprojects similar to highway building, energy vegetation and agriculture.
In March, 5 Chinese language and their Pakistani driver had been killed when a suicide bomber in northwest Pakistan rammed his explosive-laden automobile right into a car once they had been heading to the Dasu Dam, the largest hydropower venture in Pakistan, the place they labored.
Nevertheless, Japanese working in Pakistan haven’t been the goal of any such assaults.
Karachi is the biggest metropolis in Pakistan and the capital of southern Sindh province.
Individually, an Afghan Taliban non secular scholar, Mohammad Omar Jan Akhundzada, was killed by gunmen inside a mosque in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province, a neighborhood police officer Akram Ullah mentioned Friday.
Nobody claimed accountability for the assault, which occurred on Thursday.
Chief Afghan Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid denounced the killing of Akhundzada on Friday, saying Akhundzada taught at a jihadi seminary in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province and was a member of the Taliban oversight committee of Islamic students.
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Many Afghan leaders and students had lived in Quetta and elsewhere in Pakistan earlier than the Afghan Taliban seized management of Afghanistan in mid-August 2021 as U.S. and NATO forces withdrew. Most then went again and it was unclear why Akhundzada was nonetheless in Pakistan.
