KARACHI, March 5: One man was killed and two others were seriously injured when the explosives they were allegedly handling in a house went off here on Saturday, police said.

Police took the injured into custody and arrested their two alleged accomplices living in the same house. They had acquired the house on rent in Ibrahim Hyderi area of the city about four months ago.

The investigators suspected that the deceased and the arrested men were members of a 'nationalist group' which had blown up railway tracks in Karachi and other parts of Sindh recently.

“The blast almost razed the two-storey house and killed a man identified as Zulfiqar Kolachi and injured Sadruddin and Ismail Abu Bakar. They all hailed from the interior of Sindh and initial probe has suggested that they were part of the Sindh Muttahida Mahaz, Shafi Barfat Group,” said a senior police official.

The two other arrested suspects were identified as Faisal Ahmed and Mubin Ahmed Shar, he added.

He said the pamphlets found from rubble of the house had helped police determine their affiliation with the 'nationalist group' and initial statements of the arrested men corroborated it.

Railway tracks were attacked in Karachi last month and a man lost his life when he was apparently handling a bomb in Shah Latif Town a few days ago.

“Initial findings suggest that the same group was involved in those activities and they were planning more attacks for which they had stored the explosives in the house,” the official added.

He said the bomb disposal squad had initially reported that the same explosives were used in the recent attacks on railway tracks.

“We suspect that more accomplices of the arrested men are present in the city or interior of the province. We will try to arrest them, he added.