Explosion kills at least 6 men at house in Karachi in southern Pakistan

Explosion at Karachi house kills at least 6 men

KARACHI, Pakistan — A blast apparently caused by explosives stored in a house in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi killed at least six people Friday morning, police said.

The presence of militants in the home in the Baldia area of the city, a mostly Pashtun neighborhood that is a suspected hide-out of Taliban militants, could not be ruled out, police chief Wasim Ahmad told The Associated Press.

Police were investigating to determine exactly how the explosion occurred, and who the six men killed in the blast were, he said.

Television footage showed police seizing guns, suicide vests and grenades from the site.

Local resident Noor Mohammed said he rushed to the scene just after the explosion and saw some of the dead men were wearing camouflage jackets. He said the men moved into the house about three months ago.

Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and commercial hub, has largely been spared the Taliban-linked violence that has struck much of the rest of the country, a fact that analysts believe is driven by the group’s tendency to use it as a place to rest and raise money. But the city has been the scene of frequent ethnic, political and sectarian violence.

On Dec. 28, a bombing against a minority Shiite Muslim religious procession in the city killed 43 people and wounded dozens. Riots broke out after that attack, with people setting fire to the country’s largest wholesale market. The blaze burned for more than two days and destroyed thousands of shops in the area.