Car bomb attack kills 45 people in Karachi
KARACHI—Pakistan’s largest city Karachi shut down on Monday to mourn 45 people killed by a car bomb in a Shiite Muslim neighborhood, the latest in a series of devastating attacks ahead of general elections.
Traffic was thin as educational institutions, businesses and markets closed after the local government announced one day of mourning and Shiite groups, three days of mourning, for those killed in Sunday’s bombing in Abbas Town.
The bomb exploded as worshippers were coming out of mosques, ripping through two apartment blocks, setting one of them on fire and trapping people beneath piles of rubble. Survivors were, on Monday, being housed temporarily in schools.
There has been no immediate claim of responsibility. But suspicion will likely fall on banned Sunni extremist organization Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which has claimed major attacks on Shiites in the city of Quetta and on the Pakistani Taliban.
Rights groups and ordinary citizens have strongly criticized the government for failing to stop sectarian murders and bombings and bring to justice those responsible.
“Terrorists are killing us but the government is not taking any action to eliminate them,” said Mohsin Ali, 29, a Shiite whose elder brother was killed.
“How long will we keep losing our children, our relatives?”
Survivors could be seen searching for personal items and belongings, such as jewelry, from the rubble of their apartments.
“The government should provide us with arms to deal with terrorists if their agencies are unable to bring them to book,” said Azam Khan, a Sunni Muslim who said he had taken several of the dead to hospital.
“We will vote for those who eliminate these terrorists,” he said.
Karachi is vital to Pakistan’s economy, contributing 42 percent of gross domestic product, 70 percent of income tax revenue and 62 percent of sales tax revenue.