| 2002 Karachi bus bombing | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Location | Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan |
| Date | May 8, 2002 |
| Target | French people |
Attack type | Suicide car bomb |
| Deaths | 14 |
| Injured | 40 |
The 2002 Karachi bus bombing was one of a series of deadly strikes on Westerners in Pakistan in 2002. The blast killed 14 people and wounded another 40. The attack took place in Karachi, Sindh. [1]
On May 8, 2002, a man driving a car bomb stopped next to a bus in Karachi outside the Sheraton Hotel. He detonated the car, ripping the bus apart, and killing himself, 11 Frenchmen, and two Pakistanis. The Frenchmen were engineers working with Pakistan to design an Agosta 90B-class submarine for the Pakistani Navy. About 40 others were wounded. [2]
The bombing occurred close to the Pearl-Continental Hotel where the New Zealand national cricket team were staying as part of their tour of 2002. The team's physiotherapist Dayle Shackel received a minor cut to his forearm from flying glass. [3] The tour was abandoned immediately with the team returning to New Zealand on the first available flight.
Al-Qaeda was blamed for the blast. On September 18, 2002, a man named Sharib Zubair, who was believed to have masterminded the attack, was arrested.[ citation needed ] In 2003, two men[ who? ] were sentenced to death for the bombing by a Karachi court.[ citation needed ] The suspected bombmaker, Mufti Mohammad Sabir, was arrested in Karachi on September 8, 2005. [4] There were several convictions in the case, though Pakistani courts acquitted three defendants by 2009. [5]
Contrary to official announcements by the Pakistani and the French governments at the time, it is now thought to be unlikely that those responsible for the attack had links to al-Qaeda. In 2007, anti-terrorism judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere, assigned to lead the investigation into the bombing, was replaced by two investigating magistrates, Marc Trevidic and Renaud Van Ruymbeke. The former opened a new line in the investigation: that the attack was linked to the halting of kickback. [6] The resulting scandal has been dubbed "Karachigate". [7] [8]
An investigation is currently underway in France to establish the extent to which former French Prime Minister Édouard Balladur and former French President Nicolas Sarkozy were implicated in the sale of kickbacks to Pakistani officials. [8] Sarkozy was allegedly involved in accepting kickbacks from Pakistan to fund the presidential campaign of Balladur. When Jacques Chirac came to power, he cancelled the Pakistani officials' kickbacks, angering many people in Pakistan. [7]
A suicide bomber detonated a car bomb outside the lobby of the JW Marriott Jakarta hotel on 5 August 2003, killing 12 people and injuring 150. Those killed included 11 Indonesians and one Dutch national. The hotel was viewed as a Western symbol, and had been used by the United States embassy for various events. The hotel was closed for five weeks and reopened to the public on 8 September 2003.
Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan was a fugitive wanted in the United States as a participant in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings. He was alleged to have purchased the Toyota and Nissan trucks used in the attacks, flying out of Nairobi to Karachi, Pakistan five days before the assault was launched. Swedan was on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list since its inception in October 2001. He was born in Mombasa, Kenya.
The following is a list of attacks which have been carried out by Al-Qaeda.
The Karsaz bombing attack occurred on 18 October 2007 in Karachi, Pakistan; it was an attack on a motorcade carrying former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. The bombing occurred two months before she was assassinated. The bombing resulted in at least 180 deaths and 500 injuries. Most of the dead were members of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
The Islamabad Marriott Hotel bombing occurred on the night of 20 September 2008, when a dumper truck filled with explosives was detonated in front of the Marriott Hotel in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, killing at least 54 people, injuring at least 266 and leaving a 60 ft wide, 20 ft deep crater outside the hotel. The majority of the casualties were Pakistanis; at least five foreign nationals were also killed and fifteen others reported injured. The attack occurred only hours after President Asif Ali Zardari made his first speech to the Pakistani parliament. The Marriott was the most prestigious hotel in the capital, and was located near government buildings, diplomatic missions, embassies and high commissions.
The 2009 Karachi bombing or Ashura attack took place on 28 December 2009 inside a Shia procession commemorating the day of Ashura, at Muhammad Ali Jinnah Road, Karachi, Pakistan. Ashura is the holiest of days for followers of Shia Islam and marks the anniversary of the death of Hussain, grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, who was killed at the battle of Karbala in 680. At least 30 people were initially reported to have been killed, later figures revealed even more deaths while dozens were left injured in the wake of the attack. The attacker marched amongst the procession with tens of thousands of people attending the march. There is some speculation amongst officials as to whether the nature of the blast was that of a suicide attack or a remotely detonated or planted bomb.
In 2007, 34 terrorist attacks and clashes, including suicide attacks, killings, and assassinations, resulted in 134 casualties and 245 injuries, according to the PIPS security report. The report states that Pakistan faced 20 suicide attacks during 2007, which killed at least 111, besides injuring another 234 people. The PIPS report shows visible increase in suicide attacks after the siege of Lal Masjid.
This is a list of terrorist attacks in Pakistan in the calendar year 2011.
In 2006, 30 terrorist attacks, including 10 of a sectarian nature, took place, leaving 100 people dead and 230 others injured.
In 2002, 14 terrorist, insurgent and sectarian-related incidents were reported that killed 60 people and injured 150.
This is a list of terrorist incidents in Pakistan in 2012. Pakistan has faced numerous attacks by insurgents as a result of the ongoing War in North-West Pakistan by the Pakistani military against militant groups, part of the War on Terror. At the same time, there have also been numerous drone attacks in Pakistan carried out by the United States which exclusively target members of militant groups along the Afghan border regions.
The Karachi affair, otherwise known as Agosta Submarine scandal, was a major military scandal that took place in the second administration of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, involving the presidencies of François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac in 1992–97.
The following lists events that happened during 2015 in Pakistan.
This is a list of terrorist incidents in Pakistan in 2014.
On 15 March 2015, two explosions took place at Roman Catholic Church and Christ Church during Sunday service in Youhanabad, Lahore, Pakistan. At least 15 people were killed and seventy were wounded in the attacks.
On 16 August 2015, two suspected suicide bombers detonated explosives at the home office of Punjab Interior Minister Shuja Khanzada in the Attock District village of Shadikhan, 80 km (50 mi) from the Pakistani capital of Islamabad. The blasts killed the minister and 18 other people; at least 17 people were injured and taken to hospitals. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), a Deobandi militant group with ties to Al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack, and it was later determined that Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan was also involved.
The following lists events that happened during 2016 in Pakistan.
Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad is a codename of a combined military operation by the Pakistani military in support of local law enforcement agencies to disarm and eliminate the terrorist sleeper cells across all states of Pakistan, started on 22 February 2017. The operation is aimed to eliminate the threat of terrorism, and consolidating the gains of Operation Zarb-e-Azb which was launched in 2014 as a joint military offensive. It is further aimed at ensuring the security of Pakistan's borders. The operation is ongoing active participation from Pakistan Army, Pakistan Air Force, Pakistan Navy, Pakistan Police and other Warfare and Civil Armed Forces managed under the Government of Pakistan. More than 375,000 operations have been carried out against terrorists so far. This operation has been mostly acknowledged after Operation Zarb e Azb.
On 23 June 2021, a car bomb exploded in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan, killing three people.
On 26 April 2022, a suicide bombing hit a van near the University of Karachi's Confucius Institute, killing three Chinese academics and their Pakistani driver. The Balochistan Liberation Army, claimed responsibility, saying that the perpetrator was the organization's first female suicide bomber.