A car bomb went off near a procession by the minority Shia community in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi on Saturday, injuring 19 people, including five women and a child.
The explosion occurred near a graveyard in Paposh Nagar area of Karachi, police said. At the time the bomb went off, a Shia procession for the Islamic month of Muharram was passing through the area, Special Superintendent of Police Javed Baloch said.
Police and witnesses said five women, a child, a policemen and two paramilitary Pakistan Rangers personnel were injured by the blast, which completely destroyed the car. Doctors at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where the injured were taken, said the child was in a serious condition.
Police and Pakistan Rangers personnel cordoned off the site as rescue services were on. Karachi has often witnessed sectarian and political violence in the past but it was not mainly affected by a wave of bombings and suicide attacks across Pakistan that has killed over 500 since October. PTI
