Bomb injures 15 in Pakistan

KARACHI, Pakistan -- A car bomb exploded outside of a Christian Bible society in southern Pakistan Thursday, leaving 15 people injured and damaging the wall of a nearby church, officials said.\nThe attack in the port city of Karachi occurred after police received an anonymous phone warning that the Pakistan Bible Society would be targeted, police said. Shortly after the officers arrived, assailants in a car drove up and lobbed a small explosive device at them.\nFifteen minutes later, a bomb hidden in a nearby parked car exploded, police said. Twelve people, six police and paramilitary officers among them, were injured, said Seemi Jamali, a doctor at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center, where many victims were taken.\nSyed Kamal Shah, the chief of police of Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital, said 15 people were injured in the explosions. Police have released sketches of two male suspects based on a witness account.\nTelevision footage showed twisted metal and shattered glass littering the street near many of Karachi's upscale hotels.\n"We were investigating the first explosion when the second explosion occurred. It was a sudden and huge explosion," said Mohammed Iqbal, a deputy superintendent of the Rangers, a paramilitary force. Iqbal spoke to The Associated Press from his hospital bed, where he was being treated for shrapnel wounds.\nShahbaz Bhatti, the head of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, said the attack had raised concerns across the country.\n"This terrorist act has increased the sense of insecurity among Christians," he said. "These people are hell bent on creating anarchy in the country."\nPakistan's Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed blamed Islamic militants.\n"The noose is tightening around them therefore they are carrying out these activities," he said.\nPolice have meanwhile arrested "more than a dozen" suspected Islamic militants for investigation into a failed Dec. 25 bid to assassinate President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, a government spokesman said Thursday.