Twin bombings kill at least 22 in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD — Two bomb blasts targeting a bus filled with Shiite Muslims and later a hospital in Karachi on Friday killed at least 22 people in the latest outbreak of violence plaguing the troubled, nuclear-armed state.

The first attack occurred early afternoon in the heart of Karachi, when a explosives-laden motorcycle detonated next to the bus, Karachi police said. The blast killed at least 12 people and injured 50, provincial health officials said.

The bus was taking the Shiites, many of them women
and children, to a procession marking the end of the annual 40-day
mourning period commemorating the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, a grandson
of the prophet Muhammad.

Less than two hours later, at the Jinnah Hospital,
where many of the injured from the first blast were taken, a second
explosion rocked the parking lot adjacent to the emergency ward. That
blast killed at least 10 people and injured 20.

The explosion created a panic at the hospital, where
Shiite Muslims angrily shouted at police for providing poor security
and began checking the undersides of cars in the parking lot for
evidence of any other explosives.

Authorities said they believe the second blast also
involved an explosives-laden motorcycle, parked among other motorcycles
and cars.

With a population of 16 million, Karachi is Pakistan’s
largest city and its financial capital. Friday’s attacks came five
weeks after a suicide bomber blew himself up in the midst of a Shiite
Muslim procession in Karachi, killing 43 people. That attack, on Dec. 28, targeted Shiites observing Ashoura, the Shia Muslim holy day that marks the anniversary of the death of Imam Hussein.

The Pakistani Taliban later claimed responsibility for that attack. Afterward, riots broke out in the streets of Karachi in which scores of buildings, shops and cars were set ablaze and ransacked.

There was no claim of responsibility for either attack Friday. However, Shiite Muslims are a minority in Pakistan and are often targets of sectarian violence at the hands of Sunni Muslim extremist groups.

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