Karachi, Pakistan – A powerful car bomb exploded outside a KFC restaurant in southern Pakistan on Tuesday, setting off a massive fireball that overturned cars and shattered steel and glass. Three people were killed and 22 injured.
An ethnic Baluch nationalist group from southwestern Pakistan claimed responsibility. A spokesman denied the group targeted civilians, saying it tried to hit the offices of a state-owned oil and gas company above the KFC.
“We did it to protest, and we did it to pressure the government to get our rights,” said Chakar Azam, spokesman for the Baluchistan Liberation Army.
The powerful blast struck at about 8:45 a.m. as commuters were heading to shops and offices in the crowded downtown area of Karachi, Pakistan’s business hub.
Mushtaq Shah, Karachi’s police chief, said the bomb was concealed in a car parked outside the restaurant. Doctors said two men died on the spot and a third died at a hospital.
Police explosives expert Mohammed Iqbal said the bomb was made from 11 pounds of homemade explosives and detonated by a timer. The car containing the bomb was blown to pieces, leaving a 6-foot crater.
Azam said the Baluchistan Liberation Army targeted state- owned Pakistan Petroleum Ltd., which had offices in the floors above the KFC restaurant. The group demands more government aid to Baluchistan, where Pakistan’s main natural-gas fields are located.
