KARACHI (Staff Report) – Chief of the Army Staff General Raheel Sharif on Wednesday pledged to bring the elements behind Karachi bus attack to justice at all costs.
The army chief, according to a statement released by ISPR, telephoned the spiritual leader of Ismailis Prince Karim Aga Khan and extended condolences over the incident which left 45 members of the community dead.
He also vowed to take facilitators and sympathisers of the terrorists to their logical conclusion
Earlier General Raheel Sharif headed a high level meeting to review the law and order situation in Karachi following the gun attack.
Sindh Police Inspector General Ghulam Haider Jamali said that 60 people were on board the bus when gunmen opened fire and killed 43 passengers on the spot, killing the bus driver first.
He also confirmed that the armed men used 9mm pistols to carry out the attack. However, independent sources revealed the attackers also used semi-machine guns (SMGs) in the attack.
Hospital sources had earlier confirmed that the dead include 25 men and 16 women. Police officials said that there were no children among the casualties.
Ahmed Marwat, a spokesman for Jundullah which is a splinter group of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), talking to Reuters claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Al Qaeda affiliated group that started off from South Waziristan has targeted Shias and foreign tourists in the past as well. In November last year, the group had pledged support to Islamic State (IS).