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KARACHI: A low-intensity bomb explosion outside the University of Karachi on Saturday killed a man and spread panic in the neighbourhood that only a day earlier had witnessed the killing of three soldiers of Pakistan Rangers, Sindh, in an almost similar manner, officials said.
They said that the bomb was planted on the median of University Road near a residential apartment building, Naseer Tower, close to the Silver Jubilee entrance to the university, within the remit of the Mubina Town police station.
“The explosion took place between 10.30am and 10.45am,” said a police official.
The bang of the explosion caused panic in the area that housed a number of residential blocks, the University of Karachi as well as the NED University of Engineering and Technology.
A man passing by the point on his motorbike was wounded in the blast.
“The injured, identified as 47-year-old Mirza Munaf Baig, was shifted to a nearby private hospital,” said the official.
“He died from his wounds after a few hours. The victim was a teacher — not at the KU — and lived in an apartment on University Road.”
Investigators were unsure about the target of the blast. However, they believed that it was the job of the same group that had attacked a Rangers vehicle on Friday hardly a kilometre from the site of the Saturday blast.
“There is no permanent facility of any law-enforcement agency where the bomb was planted,” said Gulshan-i-Iqbal SP Abdul Salam Sheikh.
“But obviously there is a regular movement of police, Rangers and some important individuals, so the incident cannot be termed a random activity. There must have been a target which needs to be traced.”
“The bomb weighed between two and 2.25 kilograms and contained metals to make it more fatal and damaging,” said a bomb disposal unit official, who examined the blast site and evidence. “Three-fourths of the bomb consists of explosives and the rest was laced with bearings balls and nuts.
“The explosion also damaged the shops and other structure within a 30-metre radius.”
