Two blasts kill four in Sindh province

TWO RANGERS AMONG THE DEAD IN GRENADE ATTACKS THAT TARGETED SECURITY FORCES

Separate bomb and grenade attacks killed at least four people including security personnel in southern Pakistan yesterday, police said.

Two members of the Rangers — an elite paramilitary security force — were killed after an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle in the city of Ghotki in Sindh province, senior police officer Hafiz Abdul Qadir said.

A security official who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed the attack, in which a passer-by was also killed. Several other people were wounded in the attack.

According to local media reports, paramilitary ranger troops were in a market to buy food when the blast took place. Police said the dead and wounded were transported to a nearby hospital.

Eight injured

The second attack came hours later in Karachi when a grenade was hurled at a line of people waiting outside a government welfare office, killing one and injuring eight others, according to a statement from municipal authorities.

Money was being distributed by the government to poor people affected by the coronavirus when the attack took place, police said.

Imran Ismail, the provincial governor, condemned both the attacks and ordered authorities to find and arrest those who orchestrated them.

No one claimed responsibility for either attack but suspicion fell on the Pakistani Taliban and other militant groups.

Pakistan has witnessed scores of militant attacks on security forces in recent years.

Yesterday’s violence came days after a bomb exploded at a crowded bazaar in Rawalpindi, killing at least one person and wounding 15. Authorities say police have detained at least one person suspected of involvement in planting the bomb in that attack, but an investigation is still ongoing.

Karachi was once a hotspot for rampant crime and political and ethnic violence, with heavily armed groups tied to politicians frequently gunning down opponents and launching attacks on residential areas.

However, the situation has largely stabilised in recent years following operations

by security agencies against armed political outfits.

The operations were coupled with a series of large-scale military offensives targeting home-grown insurgents as well as Taliban and Al Qaida-linked militants — often based near the border with Afghanistan.

Bloodiest attack

Karachi was once a hotspot for rampant crime and political and ethnic violence, with heavily armed groups tied to politicians frequently gunning down opponents and launching attacks on residential areas.

Militant groups, however, still retain the ability to launch periodic attacks.

In 2017 the Daesh claimed a suicide blast at a Sufi shrine in Sindh which killed 90 people, in one of the bloodiest attacks to hit the province in years.