A SUICIDE bomber on a motorcycle killed 12 Shiite Muslims in Pakistan's commercial capital of Karachi yesterday, followed hours later by a blast at a hospital where the wounded were being treated, which killed up to another ten people.
• Volunteers gather beside the wreckage and damaged ambulances in front of the hospital in Karachi, where up to ten people died in the explosion Picture: AFP/Getty Images
The violence has raised further questions about the effectiveness of security crackdowns on resilient Taleban militants at a time when Washington is pushing Pakistan to help stabilise neighbouring Afghanistan.
In scenes that have become familiar in the state's battle with the Pakistani Taleban, the second blast sent a plume of white smoke above Jinnah Hospital as distraught Pakistanis transported dead relatives.
The blast blew clothes and sandals off bodies near ambulances. A teenage girl wept over what appeared to be a female relative whose stomach was shredded by shrapnel.
"It happened right in the middle of ambulances," witness Augustine Anthony said of the second blast.
It was not clear whether the attack was intended to trigger sectarian violence or to create the impression that the government was incapable of stabilising nuclear-armed Pakistan.
Police said they defused another bomb in the premises of the Karachi hospital treating the victims of the blast.
Pakistani Taleban have carried out waves of bombings at crowded markets and army and police facilities, killing hundreds of people since October in an attempt to topple the pro-American government of unpopular president Asif Ali Zardari.
Carnage in the home of Pakistan's stock exchange and main port could further discourage investors, who have watched the Taleban spread their violent campaign from strongholds in lawless areas near the Afghan border to major cities.
The senior emergency room doctor at the bomb-hit hospital recalled the moment of the blast. "A woman was calling me at the emergency ward, when the blast went off outside and then it was all darkness," said Dr Seemi Jamali. "There was an absolute chaos and people ran out of hospital from whichever door they could access."
The attacks had all the trademarks of the Taleban. Raja Umer Khattab, a senior police officer, said initial investigations suggested an al Qaeda-linked group was responsible.
"I came here with my two brothers to see our ailing cousin. Now they are missing. I don't know where they are," Meena, a ten-year-old girl, told a television station reporter at the hospital.
Karachi has been largely free of Islamist violence over the past couple of years, but a bomb at a minority Shia Muslim procession in late December that killed 32 people fuelled concern that the militants were expanding their fight to the city.
"A motorcyclist exploded near a bus ahead of us. We took off and rescued wounded," a witness to the first explosion said. About 40 people were injured.
"It's cruel. They are not Muslims. They are not human. The government is responsible because it has failed to provide us with security and control terrorists."
On Wednesday the Taleban claimed responsibility for a high-profile bomb attack that killed three US Special Operations soldiers near a girls' school in north-west Pakistan, and threatened more attacks on Americans.
