A bomb targeting a senior judge in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi wounded him and killed seven security personnel on Wednesday, a senior government official said.
The dead included six policemen and a paramilitary Ranger, said Sharjeel Memon, the Information Minister for southern Sindh province, where Karachi is the capital. The explosion also wounded 15 people, including policemen and Rangers as well as the judge, he said.
The Sindh High Court judge who was targeted, Maqbool Baqir, was being treated at a private hospital, and his condition was stable, said Mr Memon.
“We had provided maximum security to Maqbool Baqir, and he was wounded in today’s bomb attack at his convoy,” said Mr Memon.
Mr Baqir was on his way to court when the bomb exploded, said senior police official Ameer Sheik. The bomb, which was attached to a motorcycle, was so powerful that it damaged some nearby shops.
Local TV footage showed authorities transporting victims of the attack to the hospital.
No one has claimed responsibility for the bombing.
Karachi is Pakistan’s largest city with 18 million people and has a long history of violence, both by gangs connected to political parties and increasingly by Taliban militants who have relocated there from sanctuaries in the northwest along the Afghan border.
