Firefighters pour fire extinguisher on burnt motorcycles at the site of a bomb blast in Karachi

By Asif Farooqi, IOL Pakistan correspondent

ISLAMABAD, February 3 (IslamOnline) – A Pakistani man was killed and two others injured when a bomb planted in a parking area close to the residence of an anti-terror police officer went off Monday, February 3 morning in the volatile port city of Karachi.

The bomb was planted on a motorcycle and the man in charge of the parking area received the fatal shrapnel as he was getting the parking ticket from the rider. The motorcyclist and a by-passer were seriously injured, according to a police note.

“It was a medium intensity bomb. Target of the terrorist attack is still not clear,” chief of Karachi Police Kamal Shah told IslamOnline on the phone from Karachi.

He said the bomb was planted close to the headquarters of Pakistan State Oil and a crowded shopping mall.

Sources in the Karachi police however told IslamOnline that the target of the Monday’s bombing was residence of a senior police officer who has been actively involved in the investigations of terrorism related cases in Karachi.

DSP Farooq Awan lives across the parking area, some 20 meters away from where the blast took place.

According to these sources, Awan has been interrogating some key suspected of Al Qaeda associates caught from Karachi in connection with the bombings and violent events taking place in Pakistan since September 11 attacks on the United States.

Awan was investigating officer of the U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl kidnapping case in which members of a banned Islamic group Lashker e Jhangvi received capital and other punishments from a court last year.

He is also linked with the investigations of killing of many local alleged terrorists in police encounters over the last two years.

Last year, unknown terrorists sent parcel bombs to some of the key police officers in Karachi. Three of the parcel bomb exploded one of them in the office of Farooq Awan and two of his staff members were injured.

Initial police findings say Monday’s explosion was meant to threaten this key anti-terror police officer, and others who are chasing terrorist linked with terrorism related violence in Karachi, which now has a history of ethnic and religious violence.

During last year only, more than 50 people died in series of bombing including a U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl and 11 French engineers.