Islamabad:Three people were killed and 15 others injured in an explosion inside a four-storey building in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi on Wednesday morning, local media said.
The explosion happened on the first floor of the building located in Gulshan-e-Iqbal area of the city, and the powerful blast also damaged the ground floor, Dawn News reported.
The killed and injured people included residents and workers of a private bank located on the ground floor of the building. Several vehicles and motorbikes parked outside the building were also destroyed in the blast, the report added.
Shortly after the blast, local police issued a statement saying that the blast happened due to the explosion of a gas cylinder inside the building, but it was later withdrawn after rescue and investigation teams found traces of explosive materials from the debris of the building.
A bomb disposal squad also reached the site to determine the exact cause of the explosion. Meanwhile the rescue operation is underway in the area.
The injured people have been shifted to a nearby hospital where seven of them are said to be in critical condition.No group or person has claimed the attack yet.
Gen Bajwa orders immediate inquiry into 'Karachi incident'
Islamabad:Pakistan Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa on Wednesday ordered an inquiry into the "Karachi incident", the military's media wing said.
Gen Bajwa directed the Karachi Corps Commander to "immediately inquire into the circumstances that lead to the "incident" and to determine the facts and report back as soon as possible", according to the statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).
While the ISPR did not specify which particular incident it was referring to, the statement came minutes after PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari called on Gen Bajwa and Director General Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt Gen Faiz Hameed to investigate the circumstances surrounding the arrest of PML-N leader retired Capt Mohammad Safdar in Karachi a day earlier.
"The Chairman PPP expressed his appreciation to the COAS for taking prompt notice of the Karachi incident and his assurance of conducting a transparent inquiry on the incident," it added.
Safdar and his wife, PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz, were in Karachi to attend the opposition's Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) rally when he was arrested from their hotel early on Monday morning. He was subsequently released on bail.
To add to the confusion a purported voice message by PML-N leader and former Sindh governor Muhammad Zubair was shared by a journalist, allegedly after Safdar was arrested, in which Zubair alleged that the inspector general of police was kidnapped and forced to register the first information report against Maryam, her husband Safdar and 200 others for violating the sanctity of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah's mausoleum.
In the audio clip, Zubair purportedly said that Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah confirmed to him that police was pressured into making the arrest. "When they (police) refused to do that, Rangers kidnapped [the IGP]," Zubair said.
Maryam had also alleged that the Sindh police chief was forcibly "taken to the sector commander's office and asked to sign on the arrest orders". She claimed that when the IGP showed reluctance, he was told that the arrest would be carried out by the Rangers. "After his signatures were forcibly taken on the arrest orders, he was told police would carry out the arrest."The allegation was denied by Maritime Affairs Minister Ali Zaidi as "nonsense narrative".(UNI)