KARACHI – A massive blast rocked a road near the airport of Pakistan’s largest city as a separatist militant group claimed on Monday an attack in the area.
An AFP journalist heard the explosion in Pakistan’s southern megacity of Karachi around 11:00 pm (1800 GMT) Sunday, with local channel Geo News reporting two dead and ten wounded.
The regional government of southern Sindh province said on social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, that a “tanker” had exploded on the airport motorway.
Separatist militant group the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) meanwhile said in a statement that it had “targeted a high-level convoy of Chinese engineers and investors” coming from Karachi’s airport.
The BLA is a separatist militant group advocating for autonomy of Pakistan’s Balochistan province, the largest but poorest region of the country.
The group has regularly targeted Chinese nationals, claiming ethnic Baloch locals are not receiving their fair share of wealth extracted by foreign investors.
Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority said flights from Karachi were continuing “as usual” and “agencies are investigating the cause at the scene of the accident/explosion”. –AFP