Dozens killed in Karachi bus attack

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/13/bus-attack-karachi-pakistan-gunmen-motorcycles

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Gunmen killed dozens of commuters in the Pakistani port city of Karachi on Tuesday after forcing their way onto a crowded bus carrying members of a minority Islamic sect.

Men on three motorbikes initially opened fire on the bus with automatic weapons as it was travelling through the streets of the troubled city.

After it had come to a stop they climbed aboard to continue the killing spree, with many of the unarmed civilians shot in the head at close range.

Six gunmen killed 45 people and injured another 13, the provincial police chief said, in one of the worst sectarian slaughters in the city for years.

There was confusion over which one of Pakistan’s myriad militant groups was behind the attack, with both Islamic State and a Pakistani Taliban splinter group rushing to claim responsibility.

Saleem, a surviving passenger who was rushed to hospital with arm and leg wounds, said the gunmen began systematically executing people after climbing onto the bus.

“I saw five armed men who started targeting passengers individually,” he said.

“They want to target us because we are not Muslims according to most people in Pakistan,” he said.

The passengers were nearly all Ismailis, members of an international community of Muslims who follow the Aga Khan, the Europe-based spiritual leader and business tycoon.

Ismailis tend to be peaceful and progressive but as members of a branch of Shia Islam they are regarded as heretics by Pakistan’s various militant Sunni terrorist groups who have been active in Karachi for decades.

“This attack represents a senseless act of violence against a peaceful community. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and the families of those killed and wounded in the attack,” the Aga Khan said in a statement.

Regular murders of individual Shias – often members of the medical profession – are punctuated by occasional mass killings, such as the March 2013 bombing of a Shia neighbourhood, which gutted blocks of flats and left nearly 50 people dead.

Tuesday’s attack took place in the north-east of Karachi, a vast city of some 20m people, as residents of the largely Ismaili Al-Azhar Garden housing community were going about their daily routine of being dropped off at work in a distinctive bright pink bus.

Men, women and some children were on board, according to local media reports.

Naveed Shah, a passer-by, said the attackers forced the bus to a halt with gunfire before getting on board.

“There were six of them who started intense firing into the bus,” he said. “I heard women and children were shouting for help but no one dared to help them.”

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on jihadi Twitter accounts that described the Ismaili victims as “infidels”.

Printed leaflets found near the scene of the attack also claimed it was the work of Isis. The fliers said the attackers were avenging, among other things, the “torture of Sunni women by the army” and the “killing of our fighters by the Karachi police”.

The leaflets resembled those found at the scene of the attack on US citizen Debra Lobo last month.

However, Jundullah, a Pakistani Taliban splinter group, also rushed to claim responsibility.

“These killed people were Ismaili and we consider them [non-Muslim]. We had four attackers. In the coming days we will attack Ismailis, Shias and Christians,” spokesman Ahmed Marwat told Reuters.

Although there have been a spate of incidents involving pro-Isis leafleting and graffiti in recent months – and some Pakistani Taliban militants have pledged allegiance to the group – most analysts have argued the Isis presence in Pakistan is still small.

The attack comes despite almost two years of a high-profile “operation” against criminal gangs and terrorists in the city led by the Rangers, a paramilitary force controlled by the army.

The government of Sindh, the province of which Karachi is the capital, immediately responded by announcing the suspension of senior police officials and promising financial compensation for the families of victims.

The country’s army chief also announced he was postponing a three day official visit to Sri Lanka.

Tuesday’s attack was the deadliest single sectarian attack in Pakistan since the suicide bombing of a Shia mosque in southern Shikarpur district killed 61 in January.