Suicide attack, bomb kill 13 in Pakistan
A Taliban suicide bomber flattened the home of a senior counter-terrorism officer in Karachi Monday, killing eight people, as an attack on a market in Pakistan's northwest claimed five more victims.
Senior Superintendent Aslam Khan escaped unhurt, but his home was destroyed and he said he knew he was the target, telling the media that he had been threatened by the Al-Qaeda-allied Pakistani Taliban.
The Islamist militant group claimed responsibility for the attack and said Khan had been targeted for arresting, torturing and killing Taliban members.
It was the worst Islamist militant attack in Karachi, a city of 18 million, for months.
But it was the fourth attack since April in the Defence neighbourhood, an upmarket area once far removed from the sort of violence seen along the northwestern Afghan border.
Khan heads the counter-terrorism unit of the Police Crime Investigation Department in Karachi, investigating Islamist militant cells in the port city, which is a vital hub for Afghan-bound NATO supplies.
Neighbouring houses were also wrecked and four cars badly damaged, with a two-metre (six-foot) deep crater in front of Khan's home, and rubble, mud and pieces of glass scattered over a large area, an AFP reporter said.
"Eight people including six policemen have been killed and several others were wounded," Shoukat Hussain, another senior police officer, told the media. "A child and a woman were also killed. It was a car suicide attack."
Speaking to reporters outside the remains of his bungalow, Khan said: "I woke up from sleep and saw fire around. I ran towards the other rooms of the house and saw my family safe but bewildered.
"This was a cowardly act of Taliban. I am not scared of Taliban. Let me tell you that I will not spare them in future." Karachi city police chief Saud Mirza confirmed that Khan had received TTP threats, including one recent written threat.
They will be killed soon: Taliban
"We claim responsibility for the attack. Aslam Khan has killed a number of our colleagues and also arrested and tortured many more," TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP in a phone call from an undisclosed location.
"He was on our hit list and he is still on our hit list," Ehsan said, giving names of several other police and crime investigation department officials also targeted.
"They will be killed soon," he vowed.
Karachi has this year seen its worst ethnic and politically linked unrest in 16 years, with more than 100 people killed in one week alone last month.
Post new comment