A car bomb tore through an outlet of a US fast food chain in Pakistan's largest city Karachi yesterday, killing at least three people and wounding more than a dozen, police said.
The vehicle blew up outside a KFC restaurant as businesses were opening for morning trade in a busy part of the volatile city that has seen several attacks blamed on Islamic militants.
The fast food outlet and a nearby bank branch were destroyed in the blast. Several vehicles caught alight and the windows of neighboring buildings were shattered.
"It was a high-intensity explosion and its noise was heard in several parts of the city. It appears that the KFC was the target," Karachi police chief Mushtaq Shah told reporters.
Two security guards were killed and about 15 people wounded, police officer Manzoor Mughal said. A passerby died later in a hospital operating theatre, he said.
Bank employee Muhammad Aslam said from hospital that the blast threw him from his car as he arrived at work, knocking him unconscious.
"I do not know who brought me to hospital," Aslam said, his head in bandages. "I also do not know where my friend is who was also in the car with me."
Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said the explosion was "naturally an act of terrorism."
He condemned the attackers for striking as Pakistan was trying to recover from the Oct. 8 earthquake that claimed more than 73,000 lives and left 3.3 million people without homes.
"At this moment we are asking the international community to come to Pakistan's help in the wake of the earthquake and this blast will send a wrong signal outside," Sherpao said.
Pakistan will host a donors' conference in Islamabad on Saturday to try to raise billions of dollars needed to rebuild quake-hit areas. US Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca is already here with a delegation raising funds for earthquake relief.
A purported spokesman for a shadowy group called the Baluchistan Liberation Army telephoned reporters in the southwestern city of Quetta to claim responsibility for yesterday's blast.
He said it was aimed at the offices near the KFC of the state-run Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL), which operates a large natural gas field in Baluchistan.
"We will carry out more blasts because the PPL and other departments are exploiting Baluchistan's national resources and using them to the benefit of other provinces," said the man, whose credentials could not be verified.
The blast struck an area of Karachi, a hotbed for Islamic militants, that has seen some of the city's most deadly attacks, including on foreigners.
US reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped from a restaurant in the vicinity in January 2002 and later killed by Islamic militants linked to the al-Qaeda network.
A Karachi court yesterday adjourned the hearing of a British-born man's appeal against the death penalty for his role in the attack.
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