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Suicide bombing in Karachi; ten
foreigners killed

Seventeen people were also injured in the attack. According to Pakistan Navy officials, they were also French.

The blast occurred in a car, which was standing next to a naval bus that was carrying French engineers and technicians, who were working in the country's submarine project, reports said.

Police believe that the suicide bomber had parked his stolen car alongside the bus and activated the bomb just as the victims were boarding it, the News Daily said in its website.

Pakistan's official news agency APP reported that the blast was so intense that the windowpanes of the nearby hotels, including two five-star hotels, were shattered.

"The area has been cordoned off by the police. The blast site is littered with human blood and parts of bodies," The Dawn quoted senior police officer Zubair Mahmood as saying.

All the dead and wounded, earlier believed to be Germans, were removed to local hospitals.

It was not clear who was behind the blast. The police said they would investigate possible Al Qaeda links to the attack.

"We cannot rule out the involvement of Al Qaeda also. We will investigate the possible involvement of Al Qaeda," Sindh provincial police chief Syed Kamal Shah was quoted as saying.

Several religious extremist groups had expressed their opposition to the Karachi airport being used as a transit point by the international security forces being deployed in Afghanistan for the US-led war on terror.

Opposition was also mounting against joint Pakistan and US raids on the Al Qaeda hideouts along the Pak-Afghan border.

Expressing grief over the blast, the Governor of Sindh, Mohammed Mian Soomro, said the attack appeared to be the handiwork of anti-Pakistan forces.

In a statement, he said the government had made effective arrangements for the protection of foreigners.

"Foreign investors started visiting the province and showed interest to invest. But this was not liked by the anti-Pakistan forces who were out to sabotage the investment efforts being made here," he said.

Wednesday's blast was by far the biggest attack on foreigners in Karachi since US journalists Daniel Pearl was abducted and subsequently murdered a few months ago.

PTI

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