3rd LD: 43 killed as gunmen attack passenger bus in Pakistan's Karachi
Xinhua, May 13, 2015 Adjust font size:
At least 43 people were killed and 13 others were injured when unknown gunmen opened fire at a passenger bus carrying about 60 to 65 people of a minority group in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi on Wednesday morning, officials said.
Inspector General Police Ghulam Haider Jamali said that six unknown gunmen coming on three motorbikes entered the bus after stopping it and opened indiscriminate firing at the people sitting inside.
He said that the attackers shot the bus driver first and then the passengers with 9mm pistols and fled the scene.
The bus which came under attack belonged to Al-Azhar Garden Colony of minority Ismaili Community, a fraction of Shia Muslims mainly based in northern parts of the country and in Karachi.
The bus was attacked at about 9:30 a.m. (local time) in Safoora Chowrangi area of Karachi, the capital city of the country's south Sindh province.
The injured people have been shifted to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital and Jinnah Hospital where a state of emergency has been imposed.
Police cordoned off the area for investigations.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.
The country's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the attack and directed Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan to contact the concerned officials for seeking a report into the incident.
Meanwhile the Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah suspended two senior police officers for not providing adequate security to the minority group.
He also announced compensation money of Rs. five lac (5,000 USD) each for the killed, and Rs. two lac (2,000 USD) each for the injured people. Endi