PAKISTAN: Two bombs ripped through an Islamic school in Pakistan yesterday, killing eight and injuring 42, in the latest violence gripping the southern port city of Karachi.
The blasts went off near a restaurant on the grounds of Jamia Binoria, a Sunni Muslim seminary where thousands of teenagers and young adults study, said Mr Fayyaz Leghari, a senior Karachi police official. There was no claim of responsibility.
Eight people died and 42 others were injured. Some were Jamia Binoria students, but no casualty breakdown was available.
One of the dead was a child who had been passing by with his parents, said Mr Iqrar Abbasi, a doctor at Civil Hospital, Karachi.
Seminary spokesman Mr Ghulam Rabbani said there were two explosions, the first apparently intended to draw a crowd.
"The first one was smaller. When people got to the site, there was another explosion."
Officials had earlier reported that the attack was near Jamia Islamia Binori Town, a prominent seminary linked with the Taliban in Afghanistan. However, Jamia Binoria is not believed to have such links.
Explosive experts defused another bomb hidden in a plastic shopping bag near the scene of the blasts.
More than 100 police and paramilitary troops blocked off streets in the area afterwards.
The blast shattered windows in the restaurant and other buildings. Glass and rubble littered the street, along with the burned wreckage of a motorcycle in which one of the bombs was planted.
"We were drinking tea in the restaurant when the first bomb exploded. We rushed outside," said Mr Hayaullah Khan (20), a student at the school.
Karachi, Pakistan's main port city and commercial centre, is believed to be a hideout for Islamic militants, some with suspected al-Qaeda links.
In recent months the city has seen bomb explosions and attacks targeting security forces and Westerners, including an assassination attempt against a senior general in June. The general survived, but 10 other people died.
Much of the violence in the city of about 14 million people is blamed on Islamic hard-liners angered by President Pervez Musharraf's decision to ally with the US-led campaign against terrorism.