In yet another case of a bomb attack targeting a police official, eight people were killed in an explosion in the upmarket Defence Housing Area of Karachi on Monday morning. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed responsibility for the attack which they said was directed against the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of the Crime Investigation Department, Chaudhry Aslam.
The official himself survived the attack that left six policemen and a school-going child dead as the suicide bomber rammed his vehicle into the SSP's house during the morning school rush hour. While claiming responsibility for the attack in retaliation for the SSP's role in the killing and arrest of terrorists, the TTP has warned of more such attacks targeting policemen. Their hit list includes five policemen in Karachi.
A huge amount of explosive was packed into the vehicle and the attack was quite like the suicide bomb blast in Quetta earlier this month when terrorists struck at the residence of the Deputy Inspector General of the Frontier Corps (FC) in the high security Civil Lines area of the Balochistan capital. That attack - again claimed by the Taliban - was seen as a bid to strike back at the FC for helping the Inter Services Intelligence nab three al-Qaeda operatives in Quetta.