2002 Karachi bus bombing

The 2002 Karachi bus bombing was one of a series of deadly strikes on Westerners in Pakistan in 2002.

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 2 Pakistanis. The 11 Frenchmen were engineers working with Pakistan to design an Agosta 90B class submarine for the Pakistani Navy. About 40 others were wounded.

It is suspected that those responsible for the attack have links to al-Qaeda, and are seeking to oust Westerners from that country following the US Invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. On September 18, 2002, a man named Sharib Zubair was arrested and believed to have masterminded the attack. In 2003, two men were sentenced to death for the bombing by a Karachi court. The suspected bombmaker, Mufti Mohammad Sabir, was arrested on September 8, 2005.

External links

*Suicide bomber kills 11 French engineers at Karachi hotel (The Guardian)
*Pakistan arrests bomb 'mastermind' (BBC)
*Bomb suspect arrested (BBC)