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Senior policeman survives Pakistan suicide blast, 8 dead

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 18:30 GMT

Source: reuters // Reuters

* High-profile police official survives suicide blast

* Pakistan's most unstable city

* Taliban step up attacks after bin Laden's death (Adds details on dead boy and mother, Peshawar blast)

By Sahar Ahmed and Imtiaz Shah

KARACHI, Sept 19 (Reuters) - At least eight people were killed, including six policemen, after a Taliban suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden car into the home of a senior police official in Pakistan's commercial hub Karachi on Monday.

The six policemen were guarding the home of Karachi's Senior Superintendent of Police Chaudhry Mohammad Aslam, who survived the attack, said police official Naeem Shaikh.

He added that a woman and her son were also killed in the blast in which 300 kgs (136 lbs) of explosives were used.

Aslam, who was sleeping when the bomber struck, told reporters that he has received threats from militant groups.

"I will not be cowed. I will teach a lesson to generations of militants," he said at the scene of the blast. "These terrorists have put their hands in the jaw of a lion. I will continue my jihad against them."

Pakistan's Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing, saying Aslam had arrested and killed many of its fighters.

"We will attack other police officials as well who are taking action against our people," Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location. He named five Karachi police officials on the Taliban hit list.

The assault broke a lull in militant violence in Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city that is home to ports, the main stock exchange and central bank.

"My daughter was preparing to go to school when all of a sudden the explosion occurred. My daughter started crying and I ran out of the house to see what has happened," said Mohammad Imran, one of Aslam's neighbours.

"I saw a cloud of smoke rising in the sky. Our children are traumatised. Our families are disturbed. There is no security."

The blast left an eight-foot crater and much of Aslam's house was destroyed. Cement blocks, car parts, broken chairs and pieces of shattered beds were strewn at the scene.

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani said in a statement: "elements playing with the lives of innocent people would not escape the law of the land".

On Monday night, a bomb planted on a motorcycle exploded outside a shop in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing at least four people and wounding 33, said a hospital official.

The Taliban want to topple the government and impose their version of Islam. Music and video shops would be banned.

Aslam is a well-known police officer who led many high-profile raids on everyone from suspected al Qaeda cells in safehouses to some of Karachi's most hardened criminals.

Karachi is Pakistan's most unstable city. Aside from militancy, it is plagued by ethnic and political violence which has reached its worst level in 15 years, prompting calls for the military to step in.

REVENGE FOR BIN LADEN'S DEATH

Karachi contributes 25 percent of Pakistan's gross domestic product and is the country's main industrial base.

There are only about 33,000 policemen in the city of 18 million. Most of them are underpaid and are outgunned by criminals and well-armed militants.

Karachi is also a major transit point for supplies for U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

The woman killed in Monday's attack was an Urdu language teacher and her son was an eight-year-old student at her school.

At a hospital, the father of the boy wept, slumped over both their corpses, which were covered in white sheets.

The Pakistani Taliban, who vowed to avenge the May 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan by U.S. special forces, have stepped up suicide bombings.

The group embarrassed Pakistan's military with an attack on a navy base in Karachi in May after the bin Laden death. A few Taliban gunmen took on security forces in a 16-hour standoff.

(Additional reporting by Haji Mujtaba in Miranshah, and Adil Khan and, Faris Ali and Izaz Mohmand in Peshawar.; Writing by Michael Georgy)