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Blast outside KFC in Pakistan kills three
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-15 23:23
Pakistanis escort an injured man after a car
bomb exploded in Karachi November 15,
2005.[Reuters] |
The blast marked the first time the group has claimed responsibility for an
attack outside Baluchistan province, where it has launched occasional bomb and
rocket attacks against security forces, gas installations and other
infrastructure.
Interior Minister Abtab Khan Sherpao told the private Geo television network
the group's claims were being investigated.
Karachi has been the target of a number of bombings in recent months that
have killed more than a dozen people. Police said they had tightened security in
the city and were searching for clues about those behind the attack, including
from security cameras installed near the bomb site.
Hundreds of people gathered at the bomb site in the area of government
offices and luxury hotels. The blast was powerful enough to damage windowpanes
at the Pearl Continental Hotel, which is popular with foreign tourists and
businesspeople.
Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, is a center of Islamic militancy, and
previous bombings in the city have been linked to extremists opposed to
Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's close ties to the United States.
Pakistan's information minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, condemned the blast,
calling it the work of the "enemies of Pakistan."
The attack came three days before Pakistan is to host a conference of
international donors to raise funds for victims of the devastating Oct. 8
earthquake that killed about 86,000 people in the country's northwest and in
Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. Hundreds of U.S. and other foreign troops are in
the country helping with quake relief.
In September, bombs struck KFC and McDonald's restaurants in Karachi,
injuring three people in attacks believed linked to a nationwide strike called
by a hardline Islamic coalition opposed to Musharraf.
A KFC restaurant in Karachi also was burned in May, killing six workers
inside during an outbreak of religious violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslim
groups in the city.
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