5 Japanese nationals escape suicide bombing in Pakistan

By Islamuddin Sajid

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AA) — Five Japanese nationals escaped a suicide bombing in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi, while two of the attackers were killed, local police said on Friday.

"All five Japanese nationals are safe," local daily Dawn quoted police official Asif Aijaz Shaikh as saying after the bombers targeted a van carrying the Japanese citizens in the Landhi area of the city.

Shaikh, the deputy inspector general of the Counter Terrorism Department, also confirmed that another "back up" suicide bomber was killed by police.

The Japanese nationals were on their way to the Export Processing Zone of the port city when a motorcycle-mounted suicide bomber rammed into their car.

Two security guards were injured in the attack and taken to the hospital.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

Last month, five Chinese nationals working on the Dasu Hydropower Project in the remote Kohistan district were killed in a suicide attack in the Shangla district of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Their Pakistani driver was also killed in the attack.

The hydropower project is part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a $65 billion project that will connect China's northwestern Xinjiang province to the port of Gwadar in Pakistan's Balochistan province.