Kalashnikov-wielding Islamic State (IS) militants, donning police uniforms, on Wednesday gunned down 45 Ismaili Muslims, shooting them in the head as they attacked their bus in Pakistan’s volatile Karachi city. The incident sparked off international outrage with the UN, US and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemning the killing.
“The attack in Karachi is deeply saddening and utterly condemnable. Our thoughts are with the families of the deceased. We stand firmly with the people of Pakistan in this hour of grief. I wish all those injured a quick recovery,” Modi said on microblogging site Twitter. Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, while condemning the attack, asked for a report from the Interior Ministry which later sought details of the attack from the Inspector-General of Police, Sindh, and the Director-General of the Pakistan Rangers. Sharif also called off his official engagements for the day and left for the port city.
The attack was also condemned by Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan tweeted that he was stunned and grieved at the most condemnable terror attack in Karachi on ordinary citizens belonging to the most peaceful community. Following the attack, Army Chief General Raheel Sharif, who cancelled his planned three-day visit to Sri lanka, visited the area.
This attack is the latest in a series of incidents of cold-blooded sectarian violence. Pakistan has seen a rise in sectarian violence in recent years particularly against minority Shias who represent around 20 per cent of the country’s predominantly Muslim population. Six to eight motorbike-borne assailants opened fire indiscriminately at the pink bus ferrying over 60 people to a community centre to stop it, police said. They first opened fire on the bus just near the Dow Medical College around 9.30 am and then entered the bus when it stopped at Safoora Chorangi, Gulistan-e-Johar, a relatively deserted area on the outskirts of the city.
The attackers killed 45 people, 26 men and 17 women, and wounded more than 20 others before fleeing from the scene, police said. “It was a targeted attack,” Sindh Police Inspector-General Ghulam Haider Jamali told reporters. He said the attackers entered the bus and shot the passengers in the head. They used 9 mm pistols to shoot the victims,” he said. Further investigation revealed that the attackers also used sub-machine guns (SMGs).
The Sindh police chief vowed to apprehend the attackers and bring them to justice. Most of the injured were taken to the nearby Memon Hospital Insitute while others were taken to Aga Khan Hospital and Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. An injured bus conductor later managed to drive the bus to the Memon Hospital Institute, about seven km away, where an emergency was imposed due the large number of wounded people.
A blood-stained pamphlet of terrorist group IS was recovered from the scene, according to a police official. later, the IS claimed responsibility for the grisly attack and said they gunned down 43 people. “Thanks be to Allah! 45 apostates were killed and around 30 were wounded in an attack carried out by Islamic State soldiers on a bus transporting Ismaili infidels in the city of Karachi,” the extremist group said in a statement posted on jehadist Twitter accounts.
It was the first official claim of responsibility by the IS leadership of an attack in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. IS, which has seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq, announced in January the creation of a branch in what it called “Khorasan province”, encompassing Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of surrounding countries.
The passenger bus, run by a welfare service of the Ismaili community, was taking men, women and children to the city centre for jobs and schooling from a low cost housing society when six unidentified men on three motorcycles stopped the bus after firing on it and then entered into the bus and shot dead 45 passengers.
According to a woman survivor, the attackers stopped the bus and then entered from the rear door and initially targeted the driver. She added that the occupants of the bus thought that robbers had boarded the vehicle. They separated two children and then shot the driver. They told the passengers to keep their heads low.
One of the attackers at the rear of the bus then ordered his associates to shoot everyone after which they indiscriminately targeted all passengers of the bus, she said, adding that the attackers were speaking fluent Urdu. This was the worst attack targeting members of the minority community after a suicide bomber in January blew himself up in a Shia mosque in Shikarpur in the Sindh province killing 61 worshippers and bystanders.
Reacting to the killings Jacqui Badcock, Resident Coordinator of the UN in Pakistan said: “We are horrified by this act of brutality and extend our condolences to the families of the deceased and the wounded. We express our deep concern about the repeated acts of blind violence against religious and ethnic minorities in Pakistan and reaffirm our strongest commitment to protecting the rights of all minorities for them to freely exercise their rights.”
The UN also urged the Pakistani Government to encourage tolerance between different religious and ethnic communities in the country. US Ambassador to Pakistan, Richard Olson extended condolences to the families of the victims while strongly condemning the senseless terrorist act. “The US remains steadfast in its commitment to the people of Pakistan in their efforts to counter terrorism, and supports the right of every person to worship as they choose, without fear of intimidation, coercion or violence. “We support Pakistan’s efforts to bring all those involved to justice and stand ready to provide any appropriate assistance to authorities investigating this tragic attack,” Olson said.