KARACHI: At least five people were killed and many others were wounded in what appeared to be a sectarian attack in Karachi on Saturday, police said. The death toll is feared to go up as at least two people are critically injured. The gun attack took place in a residential area near a police station...

The death toll is feared to go up as at least two people are critically injured.The gun attack took place in a residential area near a police station in Nazimabad No 4 area of the city. A Rangers station is located merely half a kilometer from the attack site.According to police, two gunmen riding a bike entered a street in Nazimabad and attacked a majlis (Shia religious gathering) which was under way in a tent.Rescue officials confirmed that five people perished in the firing incident. Those killed or injured in the attack were shifted to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.Police and Rangers reached the scene, cordoned off the area and launched a probe.Initial probe suggests that there were four attackers. Two assailants targeted the male participants of the majlis while their accomplices gave them a cover.According to an eyewitness, two gunmen wearing helmets opened fire on the male section of the majlis at 5:45 and escaped.Taking notice of the incident, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah made a telephone call to Sindh police chief and asked him to bring the perpetrators of the terrorist attack to justice.On the other hand, IG police Mushtaq Mehr asked for a report about the attack.According to the police, many empty shells of 9mm firearm were recovered from the scene of attack.Police say they were not informed about the majlis.In a press atement, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali condemned the terrorist attack. - SAMAA </s> The shooting took place in the North Nazimabad neighborhood of the sprawling metropolis of more than 18 million people, where sectarian, ethnic and political violence is common.

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi's Al Alami faction, which targets Shi'ites and Pakistan's security forces, killed more than 60 police cadets in the southwestern city of Quetta on Monday in an attack in conjunction with Islamic State.

But it said it carried out this attack on its own.

"Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Al Alami accepts responsibility for those killed in this attack, and we announce that there is no room for the enemies of the companions of the Prophet Muhammad in Pakistan," said Ali bin Sufyan, the group's spokesperson, in a statement.

Provincial police chief Allah Dino Khwaja told reporters men on two motorcycles fired on the gathering.

Four people were killed and another three wounded, Nasir Aftab, a senior police officer, said.

Violence and crime has dropped significantly in Karachi since the launch of a paramilitary operation in the city three years ago, but targeted attacks still occur frequently.

Shi'ite Muslims make up about 20 percent of Pakistan's 190 million people, and sectarian attacks against them - including bombings and targeted attacks - have become increasingly common in recent years.

Since 2002, more than 2,500 Shi'ite Muslims have been killed in such attacks, according to data gathered by the South Asia Terrorism Portal. At least 23 people have been killed in such attacks this year, it said. </s> KARACHI: At least 13 people, including five policemen, were on Tuesday injured in two separate suicide bombings during Eid prayers targeting minority Shias in Pakistan’s relatively peaceful southern Sindh province.

Four suicide attackers infiltrated Shikarpur district’s Khanpur tehsil, 470 kilometres north of Karachi, police said.

Two of the attackers targeted an Eid prayer ground where one assailant blew himself up, injuring 10 people, two of whom were policemen. The other attacker fled, they said.

Two other suicide bombers targeted a Shia mosque but they were stopped at the entrance by policemen, which led to one of the attackers to blow himself up while the other was arrested.

Three policemen were injured in the attack, one of whom was critical. Last year, at least 61 people were killed in a suicide attack on a mosque in the district.

“If the policemen had not prevented these suicide bombers from entering the prayer venues there would have been large-scale casualties because of the large gathering because of Eid prayers,” he said.

He said the attackers at the Shia mosque were stopped by policemen as they looked suspicious and when confronted one of them detonated himself.

“The other attacker was brought down and arrested,” he added. Those injured in the blast have been admitted to hospitals in Shikarpur for treatment. No group has immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. </s> Karachi: At least two policemen were killed in a roadside blast in the troubled Balochistan province while 13 people were injured in two separate suicide bombings during Eid prayers on Tuesday targeting minority Shias in Pakistan's relatively peaceful southern Sindh province.

Two police officials were killed and 10 other injured in a blast near a police training centre on Quetta's Sariab road when militants targeted a police patrol vehicle in the area, police said.

Also, four suicide attackers infiltrated Shikarpur district's Khanpur tehsil, 470 kilometres north of Karachi, police said.

Two of the attackers targeted an Eid prayer ground where one assailant blew himself up, injuring 10 people, two of whom were policemen. The other attacker managed to flee, they said.

Two other suicide bombers targeted a Shia mosque but they were stopped at the entrance by policemen, which led to one of them blowing himself up while the other was arrested. Three policemen were injured in the attack, one of whom was critical. Last year, at least 61 people were killed in a suicide attack on a mosque in the district.

"Alert" policemen at the venues prevented huge casualties, police officer Beherdin Kehrio told reporters. "If the policemen had not prevented these suicide bombers from entering the prayer venues there would have been largescale casualties because of the large gathering because of Eid prayers," he said.

He said the attackers at the Shia mosque were stopped by policemen as they looked suspicious and when confronted one of them detonated himself. "The other attacker was brought down and arrested," he added.

Those injured in the blast have been admitted to hospitals in Shikarpur for treatment. No group has immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Pakistan has been frequently hit by sectarian violence in recent years, most of them perpetrated by hardline Sunni Muslim groups against minority Shia Muslims. However, Sindh is considered a relatively peaceful of Pakistan's four provinces and is highly influenced by Sufi doctrines and principles. </s> A bomb apparently targeting a mosque in Pakistan's northwestern city of Parachinar killed at least 22 people on Friday and wounded dozens in an attack claimed by the Pakistani Taliban.

The explosion in a remote area bordering Afghanistan came as people gathered for Friday prayers near the women's entrance of a Shia mosque in the central bazaar, the latest in a series of attacks across Sunni-majority Pakistan this year.

The local political agent, Ikramullah Khan, said the death toll had reached 22, with 70 wounded.

Sajid Hussain, a parliamentarian from Parachinar, said gunfire preceded the blast, which he described as a suicide attack. The city is located in an area with a large Shia population.

"The attack took place in a busy area and a women's mosque appears to be the target," he said. </s> PARACHINAR, Pakistan: An explosion apparently targeting a mosque in Pakistan's northwestern city of Parachinar, in a remote area bordering Afghanistan, killed at least 22 people on Friday and wounded dozens, officials said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the blast, which took place as people gathered for Friday prayers near the women's entrance of a Shia mosque in the central bazaar, follows a series of attacks this year.

The local political agent, Ikramullah Khan, said the death toll had reached 22, with 70 injured.

A parliamentarian from Parachinar, Sajid Hussain, said gunfire preceded the blast, which he described as a suicide attack.

"The attack took place in a busy area and a women's mosque appears to be the target," he said.

Last month, more than 80 people were killed and dozens wounded in an attack on a crowded Sufi shrine in southern Pakistan that was claimed by Islamic State.

In January, at least 21 people were killed when an explosion hit a vegetable market in Parachinar, capital of the Kurram tribal region, where Pakistani security forces have battled militant groups for years.

Authorities in mainly Sunni-Muslim Pakistan said a military rescue helicopter had been sent to the scene to help evacuate the injured.

Mumtaz Hussain, a doctor at the Agency Headquarters Hospital in the region, said five bodies, including a woman and two children, and more than three dozen wounded had been brought to the hospital and an appeal for blood donors had been made.

"Patients are being brought to us in private cars and ambulances and we have received over three dozen patients so far," Hussain told Reuters.

The attacks have shattered hopes that Pakistan may have come through the militant violence that has scarred its recent history and increased pressure on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's government to show it was improving security.

Sharif condemned the attack and said the government would keep up efforts to "eliminate the menace of terrorism".

In a statement, he said: "The network of terrorists has already been broken and it is our national duty to continue this war until the complete annihilation of the scourge of terrorism from our soil." </s> Peshawar: At least 32 people, including three Pakistani-Sikhs, were killed and more than 40 others were injured on Friday when a suicide bomber triggered a powerful bomb blast at a busy market outside a religious seminary in the country's restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, police said.

According to the initial investigation, an improvised explosive device was planted in a bike that was used for transporting vegetables to the popular Friday Market (Juma Bazar) near an imambargah, a Shia religious place, in Orakzai tribal district's Kalaya area, bordering Afghanistan.

"This is a Friday bazaar, where hundreds of people had gathered for groceries," Deputy Commissioner Khalid Iqbal said. "The ground is then used for Friday prayers as well," he added.

At least 32 people were killed while more than 40 others injured, Dawn news quoted district administration officials as saying.

"Three Sikh traders and three children were also among the dead in the Orakzai blast," Iqbal told PTI.

The minority Sikh community in the area was previously displaced by the Taliban that controlled the region prior to the military operation in 2010, Samaa TV reported.

Officials said that most of the victims were minority Shia Muslims, who in the past were also targeted in the area. "Three children were among those killed. The remote-controlled bomb was attached to a motorcycle," officials said.

"I was buying vegetables at a distance from the bomb site," Karam Khan, who accompanied an injured person to the hospital in Kohat, said. "There was a huge explosion and I woke up with blood splashed all over the place and there were body parts everywhere," he said about the gory scene.

The area has been cordoned off and an investigation into the incident is underway. An emergency has been declared in the region's hospitals to handle the situation.

The explosion in lower Orakzai is the second terror attack in Pakistan on Friday.

Earlier on Friday, an attack targeting the Chinese consulate in Karachi's Clifton area was foiled by security forces. Four people, including two security personnel and two civilians, were killed in the attack. Three terrorists were also gunned down.

Prime Minister Imran Khan strongly condemned the terrorist attack in Orakzai tribal area and said: "My prayers go to the victims & their families".

"Let there be no doubt in anyone's mind that we will crush the terrorists, whatever it takes," he said in a tweet.

Human rights minister Shireen Mazari blamed the US failure in Afghanistan for the attack and warned Pakistan to be prepared for more such incidents. She condemned the horrific terror attack. "As the US fails in Afghanistan, Pakistan should be prepared for fallout and we must ensure greater security for our tribal areas especially protection of our people," she tweeted.

The attack was claimed by a separatist militant group from Pakistan's southwestern province of Balochistan, which is at the centre of a major Chinese investment project in the country. "We have carried out this attack and our action is continuing," the spokesman for the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), Geand Baloch, told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location. The BLA is just one of the militant groups operating in Balochistan, Pakistan's largest and poorest province, which is rife with ethnic, sectarian and separatist insurgencies.

"Our enemies are not happy with peace in the province," provincial Chief Minister Mehmood Khan said while condemning the attack.

In 2011, 30 people including 10 cops, were killed and over 50 injured when a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden van into the building of the Communication and Works Department.

 Orakzai, a terror hotbed, is one of the seven semi-autonomous tribal regions of Pakistan which has a porus border with Afghanistan. </s> Suicide bombers attacked a court complex in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least six people, police said.

A spokesperson for the Pakistan Taliban Jamaat-ur-Ahrar faction claimed responsibility for the attack in town of Tangi in the district of Charsadda.

At least six people were killed and 15 wounded in Tuesday's attack, according to police and hospital officials at the Tangi government hospital where the wounded are being treated.

Three suicide attackers attempted to attack the court, but as they exploded their vests, they were shot dead at the gate, another police official, Sabz Ali, told Al Jazeera.

Police sources said a search operation was launched in the area following the blast. That search has now been completed and the area was deemed clear.

A wave of recent attacks has gripped Pakistan. Over the past 10 days, a string of bombings has killed more than 100 people.

In one of the attacks last week, dozens of worshippers gathered at a famed Sufi shrine were killed when an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group's suicide bomber walked into the shrine's main hall in the southern Sindh province and detonated his explosives. The death toll from that attack has since risen to 90.

The shrine bombing prompted a countrywide crackdown by security forces targeting armed groups and their hideouts. </s> PESHAWAR/KARACHI: Twin blasts tore through a market crowded with Eid shoppers in a mainly Shia town, a suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car and militants opened fire on police in separate attacks in Pakistan’s three major cities today, killing 42 people and wounding 121 others.

The suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car near Inspector General of Police Ehsan Mehboob’s office in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, killing at least 13 people, including seven policemen, and wounding 21 others.

The blast was claimed by both the local affiliate of the Islamic State terror group and by Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), a splinter group of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.

Thirteen people, including seven policemen, died in the suicide car bombing, officials said.

Hours later, two back-to-back blasts tore through a market crowded with the people shopping for Eid in the Shia- dominated Parachinar city in the Kurram tribal region, killing at least 25 people, mostly Shias, and injuring 100 others. (AGENCIES)
Five people are killed and several other civilians injured as armed terrorists, targeting Shia Muslims, open fire on participants of a Majlis at a home in the Nazimabad district of Karachi, Pakistan.