Pakistan: Van Blast in Karachi Kills Four, Including Three Chinese Nationals
The Wire Staff
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New Delhi: A blast ripped through a passenger van on April 26, Tuesday in Pakistan's busy southern port city of Karachi, killing four people, police said, but it was not immediately clear if the incident was the result of a planted device or a suicide attack.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, which took place near a university campus.
"It is too early to say what kind of a blast it is," police officer Muqaddas Haider told reporters. "We have a confirmation of four deaths, but I can't say anything about their identities."
He declined to confirm domestic television reports that some foreigners were among the occupants of the van, including three Chinese women.
According to Geo News, citing rescue sources, of the four people killed in the blast, three were identified as Chinese nationals. The deceased Chinese nationals have been identified as the director of the Confucius Institute Huang Guiping, Ding Mupeng, Chen Sai, and their Pakistani driver Khalid, the report said.
Two of the injured have been identified as Chinese national Wang Yuqing and a guard named Hamid. Meanwhile, three people are said to be in critical condition, as per sources cited in the report.
Dawn has also reported the same details.
The explosion occurred at 1:52 pm in a van near the Confucius Institute — a Chinese language teaching centre at Karachi University, Geo News reported.
Speaking to Geo News, deputy inspector general of police (DIG) East Muqaddas Haider expressed concerns that the blast could have been a terrorist attack targeting Chinese nationals.
However, Karachi Police chief Ghulam Nabi Memon said that according to the initial investigation, a burqa-clad woman may be involved in the suicide blast.
Reuters reported that a grouping of Sunni militant outfits, Pakistani Taliban or Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, which has links to al Qaeda and the Islamic State militant group, recently said it had sent suicide bombers to carry out attacks in the south Asian nation.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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