Twin bombings kill at least 22 in Pakistan

Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan — Two bomb blasts in Karachi on Friday targeting a bus filled with Shiite Muslims and later a hospital killed at least 22 people in the latest outbreak of violence plaguing troubled nuclear-armed Pakistan.

The first attack occurred early in the afternoon in the heart of the Pakistani commercial and financial hub, when an explosives-laden motorcycle detonated next to the bus, Karachi police said. The blast killed at least 12 people and injured 50, provincial health officials said.

The bus was taking the Shiites, many of them women and children, to a procession marking the end of the annual 40-day mourning period commemorating the 7th century martyrdom of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the prophet Muhammad.

Less than two hours later, at the Jinnah Hospital, where many of the injured from the first blast had been taken, a second explosion rocked the parking lot adjacent to the emergency ward. That blast killed at least 10 people and injured 20.

The explosion created a panic at the hospital, where Shiites angrily shouted at police officials for providing poor security and began checking the undersides of vehicles in the parking lot for explosives.

Authorities said they believed that the second blast also involved an explosives-laden motorcycle, parked with other motorcycles and cars.

There was no claim of responsibility for either attack.

With a population of more than 16 million, Karachi is Pakistan’s largest city. the attacks came 5 1/2 weeks after a suicide bomber blew himself up in the midst of a Shiite procession there, killing 43 people. That attack, on Dec. 28, targeted a throng observing Ashura, the Shiite holy day marking the anniversary of Hussein’s death.

alex.rodriguez

@latimes.com