A powerful roadside bomb and a hand-grenade attack targeting security vehicles hours apart killed at least four people and wounded several others in the country’s south Friday, police officials and rescuers said.
Two paramilitary rangers and a passerby were killed in the first attack when a roadside bomb exploded near a security vehicle outside a market in Ghotki, a town in Sindh province, police said. Several other people were wounded in the attack.
According to local media reports, paramilitary ranger troops were in a market to buy food when the blast took place.
The martyred officials were identified as Zahoor Ahmed and Fayyaz Ahmed while the civilian was identified as Ghulam Mustafa. According to the police, Zahoor and Fayyaz would regularly buy meat from the shop. Police said the dead and wounded were transported to a nearby hospital.
Hours later, at least one person was killed when assailants threw a grenade at paramilitary forces guarding a school in the port city of Karachi. Money was being distributed by the government to poor people affected by the coronavirus when the attack took place, police said.
Shortly after reports of explosions in Ghotki and Karachi emerged, a cracker explosion also took place in Larkana outside a public school, where a Rangers van was parked. There were no casualties, police said. Police and Rangers cordoned off the area soon after the explosion.
Shadowy secessionist organization the Sindhudesh Revolutionary Army said it carried out the attacks. “Sindhudesh Revolutionary Army claims the responsibility of Karachi, Ghotki and Larkana attacks,” it tweeted, without giving more details.
Counter-Terrorism Department official Raja Umer Khattab said that the primary target of the attacks was Rangers and added that the claims made by a Sindhi sub-nationalist group were being investigated.
Sindh Governor Imran Ismail condemned the attacks and ordered authorities to find and arrest those who orchestrated them.
