KARACHI – A man was killed and 13 others wounded in a grenade attack on a restaurant in Jamshed Quarters area in the wee hours of Saturday.
According to SHO Khushnood, unidentified armed men came outside the restaurant at around 2:30am and resorted to indiscriminate aerial firing before throwing a hand grenade.
DSP Qaiser Ali dispelled the concerns that the attack aimed to force the restaurant owner into paying extortion money, saying no-one turned up with such a complaint.
Sources, however, said that a notorious gangster, Ahmad Ali Magsi, had demanded Rs1.5 million from the restaurant owner, adding that the attack came when Muhammad Younis refused to pay the second installment.
Officials of the Bomb Disposal Squad said it was a Russian-made grenade and similar to the one used in a recent attack in Lyari.
The injured – Saleem, Khalil, Jalil, Sikandar, Ismail, Shahid, Ashar, Atif, Manzoor, Irfan, Aalmuddin, Akbar, Ahmad Uddin, Bilal and Arif – were ferried to the Civil Hospital Karachi and Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre. One of the wounded men, namely Saleem, died during treatment as he was fatally hurt. The victim was a loaf-maker.
The blast was so powerful that it made holes in the shutter and the walls of the shop.
A case has been registered against the unidentified attackers on the complaint of the restaurant owner, Muhammad Younis.