Twin explosions rocked a famed Sufi shrine in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi on Thursday, killing at least seven people, wounding 65 others, and sending a stark reminder of the threat posed by Islamist militants to this U.S.-allied nation.
Security officials responding to the blasts at the Abdullah Shah Ghazi shrine said they had found some suspicious packages and were evacuating people as quickly as possible. Two severed head were discovered, an indication that suicide bombers may have caused the explosions, officials said.
Pakistani shrines and mosques have frequently been the target of the Islamist militant groups, whose hardline interpretations of Islam leave no room for the more mystical Sufi practices that are common in this Sunni Muslim-majority nation of 175 million. Earlier this year in the eastern city of Lahore, the nearly 50 people were killed in a similar attack at the another major Sufi shrine.
The blasts at the Ghazi shrine came on a Thursday evening, the busiest time of the week for Sufi shrines across the country. Thousands typically visit that shrine on a Thursday, praying, distribute food to the poor and toss rose petals on the grave of the saint. Ghazi was an 8th century saint credited with bringing Islam to the region along the coast.
Witness Hassam Uddin said the two blasts occurred near the main entrance of the shrine's compound before the metal detector, and that he saw 18 to 20 critically wounded people lying on the ground.
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