5 Japanese workers in Pakistan escape suicide blast targeting their van. A Pakistani bystander dies

KARACHI, Pakistan â€”  A suicide bomber targeted a van carrying Japanese nationals in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi on Friday, police said. The Japanese nationals escaped unharmed but officials later said one bystander was killed.

Initially, police said the van was heading to an industrial area where the five Japanese nationals worked when it came under attack, local police chief Arshad Awan said. Police escorting the Japanese returned fire, killing a second attacker, the bomber’s accomplice, he said.

“All the Japanese who were the target of the attack are safe,� Awan added.

Police had initially said the five worked at Pakistan Suzuki Motors but later corrected that statement, saying it was another factory.

Images on local news channels showed a damaged van as police officers arrived at the scene. The three passersby who were wounded in the attack were taken to the hospital, where one later died. The two others were said to be in stable condition.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif denounced the attack in separate statements, praised police for their quick response and vowed to eliminate terrorism. They also offered prayers for the casualties.

The Foreign Ministry confirmed the Japanese nationals were unhurt and said it “strongly condemns this heinous act of terrorism. All necessary measures will be taken to bring the perpetrators to justice.�

“Pakistan remains committed to ensuring the safety of foreign nationals residing in the country,� the ministry said.

The ministry said two Pakistani nationals were killed in Friday’s attack, which contradicted the statements from police and hospital officials who said one of the three wounded died. The discrepancy could not immediately be reconciled.

The van was given a police escort following reports of possible attacks targeting foreigners working in Pakistan on various Chinese-funded and other projects, said Tariq Mastoi, a senior police officer. He said a timely and quick response from the guards and police foiled the attack and both attackers were killed.

No one immediately claimed responsibility, but suspicion is likely to fall on separatists or the Pakistani Taliban, which has stepped up attacks on security forces in recent years.

Insurgents have also targeted Chinese working in Pakistan on projects relating to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which includes a multitude of megaprojects, such as road construction, power plants and agriculture.

In March, five Chinese and their Pakistani driver were killed when a suicide bomber in northwestern Pakistan rammed his explosive-laden car into a vehicle when they were heading to the Dasu Dam, the biggest hydropower project in Pakistan, where they worked.

Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, is the capital of southern Sindh province.

Separately, an Afghan Taliban religious scholar, Mohammad Omar Jan Akhundzada, was killed on Thursday by gunmen inside a mosque in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province, a local police officer Akram Ullah said.

No one claimed responsibility for that attack.

Chief Afghan Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid on Friday denounced the killing of Akhundzada, saying Akhundzada taught at a jihadi seminary in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province and was a member of the Taliban oversight committee of Islamic scholars.

Many Afghan leaders and scholars lived in Quetta and elsewhere in Pakistan before the Afghan Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in mid-August 2021 as U.S. and NATO forces withdrew. Most then went back and it was unclear why Akhundzada was still in Pakistan.

— Associated Press writer Abdul Sattar contributed to this story from Quetta, Pakistan.