Bomb kills Pakisitani president aide, 2 others: Police
KARACHI, July 10, 2013 (AFP) - A bomb attack killed a senior aide to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday and at least two other people in the country's business capital Karachi, officials said.
The bomb exploded in a middle-class neighbourhood in central Karachi, close to an office for Zardari's Pakistan People's Party (PPP), which rules southern Sindh province.
Zardari was at his official residence around 10 kilometres (six miles) away when the attack happened, officials said.
“It was a bomb blast and at least three people were killed and 10 others were wounded,” police official Tahir Naveed told AFP.
Another police official, Usman Bajwa, said Bilal Sheikh, Zardari's top personal security officer in Karachi, was among those killed.
“I can confirm that Bilal Sheikh has expired,” Bajwa told AFP.
Bajwa told reporters that pieces of human flesh at the scene indicate it “might” have been a suicide attack but said “it's just an assumption so far”.
Naveed said the bomb was so powerful it shattered the bullet-proof vehicle in which Sheikh had been travelling.
Sheikh, his driver and a passer-by were killed, he added.
Both Zardari and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the leader of the PPP's biggest rival, the Pakistan Muslim League-N party, strongly condemned the attack, state media said.