Karachi Terror Attack: 47 Martyred in Open Fire on Bus

Local Editor

At least 47 people had been martyred and tens of others wounded after unidentified armed men launched an attack on a bus in Pakistan's southern province of Sindh.

A senior police official, requesting anonymity, said the incident took place in the Safoora Chowk area of Karachi, located 1,146 kilometers [712 miles] east of the capital, Islamabad, on Wednesday, when a group of around eight assailants stopped the bus and opened indiscriminate fire on passengers.

Further, medical sources, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said among the victims were 25 men and 16 women.

Television channels carried pictures of a pink bus covered in bullet holes and lines of waiting ambulances.

"There were six attackers. They boarded the bus and carried out the shooting," Police Superintendent Najib Khan stated. He said all the passengers were from the Ismaili community.

Moreover, five of the injured victims succumbed to their wounds while en route to hospital. Some of the wounded people were reportedly in a critical condition, and the death toll was expected to rise, according to sources.

Accordingly, Tehreek-i-Taliban [TTP] had reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack.

In March, suicide bombings outside two churches in Lahore killed 14 people and wounded nearly 80. Days later, a bomb after Friday prayers wounded 12 people outside a minority Bohra mosque in Karachi.

In February, 20 people were martyred in an attack on a mosque in the northeastern city of Peshawar, and 60 were also martyred in a January attack on a mosque in the southern province of Sindh.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team