At least 43 people including 16 women of Ismaili Shia Community were killed, and several others wounded when armed pro-Taliban Deobandi terrorists of Ahl-e-Sunnat-Wal-Jamaat (ASWJ) aka Sipah-e-Sahaba and Jundullah opened fire on a bus near Safoora Chowk area in Karachi, The Shia Post reports.
A pamphlet found at the site has claimed the role of pro-ISIS terrorist group Jundullah and Sajina group of ASWJ and has threatened more attacks on all Shia communities.
A leaflet allegedly from Daesh Khurasan (ISIS) was said by an official to have been left at the scene of the incident alongside leaflets in Urdu… though as yet there is no claim from the main body of ISIS.
The bus belongs to the Al-Azhar Garden Colony, which is an Ismaili Shia Community housing project in Karachi. It was on its regular route headed towards Federal B Area of Karachi.
According to a rescue official, over 65 people were travelling on their way to serve their jobs in different offices and organizations when the attack took place.
The attackers managed to escape from the scene after the incident.
An eye-witness said around eight to ten men riding five to six motorcycles opened indiscriminate fire on a bus, wounding several passengers.
Security and rescue teams reached the spot. Fear and panic gripped the area after the attack.
Rescue personnel shifted the victims to nearby hospitals where an emergency has been imposed. Five of the wounded succumbed to their wounds while en route to the hospital, according to rescue sources.
The condition of several wounded was reported as critical and the death-toll is expected to increase.
A senior police official, requesting anonymity as he was not authorised to talk to the media, told Dawn that the attackers entered the bus and shot the passengers in the head.
“The gunmen stopped the bus and first fired at it from outside,” a policeman told AFP. “Then they entered inside the bus and open fire indiscriminately. After that they checked to see if anyone was left uninjured.”
“As the gunmen climbed on to the bus, one of them shouted, ‘Kill them all!’ Then they started indiscriminately firing at everyone they saw,” a wounded woman told a television channel by phone.
Police Superintendent Najib Khan told Reuters there were six gunmen and that all the passengers were Ismailis, a minority Shi’ite Muslim sect. Pakistan is mostly Sunni.
Takfiri terrorist group Jundullah, which has attacked Shia Muslim and armed fores of Pakistan and Iran before, claimed responsibility. The group has links with the Pakistani Taliban and pledged allegiance to ISIS in November.
On 19-06-2007 Deobandi Mufti Naeem, head of Jamia Banoria Karachi, Issued Fatwa against Ismaili Shias and declared them Kafir / Infidel.
Uzma Alkarim, a member of the Ismaili community, said the bus took commuters to work every day. The Ismailis had faced threats before, she said.
“Around six months ago, our community elders had alerted us to be careful because of security threats but things had calmed down recently,” she said.
English leaflets left in the bus were headlined “Advent of the Islamic State!” and used a derogatory Arabic word for Shi’ites, blaming them for “barbaric atrocities … in the Levant, Iraq and Yemen”.
Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif also arrived in Karachi hours after deadly bus attack in Karachi.
Director General of Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt. Gen. Rizwan Akhtar is also accompanying the army chief.
The sources said that the COAS would chair a high-level meeting in Karachi where the DG Rangers Sindh and Corps Commander Karachi would give briefing over the bus attack.
Earlier this morning, Major General Asim Saleem Bajwa announced on Twitter that Gen Raheel has cancelled his pre-scheduled 3-day visit to Sri Lanka due to Karachi terrorist bus attack.
General Raheel Sharif was due to leave for Sri Lanka this evening to visit on the invitation of Sri Lankan Army Commander Lieutenant General Crishanthe De Silva.
http://en.shiapost.com/2015/05/13/41ismailis-killed-several-injured-as-aswj-terrorists-open-fire-on-bus-in-karachi/
No comments:
Post a Comment