A blast apparently caused by explosives stored in a house in Karachi yesterday killed at least seven people, some of whom may have been militants, police said.
The explosion occurred in Baldia, a mostly ethnic Pashtun neighborhood that is a suspected Taliban hide-out, police Chief Wasim Ahmad told reporters.
Its exact cause was unclear.
TV footage showed police seizing guns, suicide vests and grenades from the site.
Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said some people from Swat Valley, a region where the army has waged an offensive against the Taliban, were believed to have been staying at the house along with some guests, but he stressed the investigation was ongoing.
Noor Mohammed, a local resident, said he rushed to the scene just after the explosion and saw some of the dead men were wearing camouflage jackets. He said the men moved into the house about three months ago.
On Dec. 28, a bomb attack on a minority Shiite Muslim religious procession in the city killed 43 people and wounded dozens. Riots broke out after the attack, with people setting fire to the country’s largest wholesale market. The blaze burned for more than two days and destroyed thousands of shops.
Malik said authorities plan to crack down on “illegal immigrants” in Karachi — a possible reference to Afghans, many of them Pashtun, who reside in vast settlements on the city’s outskirts.
He said such illegal immigrants had 15 days to leave the city.
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