The explosions, which occurred in busy commercial and residential areas, caused widespread panic in the bustling city of about 16 million people.

Karachi police chief Waseem Ahmed said the attacks were carried out to create “fear and tension in the city”.

“These series of blasts in Karachi were of low intensity and they have not caused any damage to property,” Ahmed told Dawn News channel. Police and paramilitary Pakistan Rangers were deployed across the city and an emergency was declared in hospitals.

State-run PTV reported that one person was killed in a blast at Qasba Colony. Fifteen children were among the injured, TV news channels reported.

Earlier reports said two persons were killed in the blasts.

The explosions occurred within the space of an hour at Orangi Town, Banaras Chowk, Pahargunj, Shahrah-e-Noor Jehan, Qasba Colony and Mangho Pir, the channels reported.

At some locations, the bombs were hidden in vehicles, including a mini-bus and a motorcycle. At Banaras Chowk, a bomb was hidden in a junk market. A policeman was injured in the blast in Mangho Pir, where the annual pilgrimage at a Muslim shrine had begun on Sunday.

Ambulances of different rescue services rushed to the blast sites and took the injured to different hospitals. The explosions caused traffic jams in several parts of Karachi. At some places, enraged people took to the streets and started pelting stones at vehicles. There were also reports of protestors firing in the air at some places. There were also unconfirmed reports of a seventh blast at Pak Colony.

No group claimed responsibility for the blasts, which occurred a day after a suicide bomber blew himself up near a police contingent in the vicinity of the Lal Masjid in Islamabad.

Twenty-one people, most of them policemen, were killed in that attack. President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the blasts. Gilani, who is on an official visit to Malaysia, asked the “nation to remain united and support his government in maintaining law and order”.

Investigators find head at bomb site

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani investigators scouring the scene of a weekend suicide bomb attack on police found a severed head on Monday as the leader of the ruling party said his government would do everything to stop the bombers.The toll from Sunday’s attack on police, who had been guarding Islamists marking the anniversary of an army commando raid on Islamabad’s Lal Masjid, rose to 21 as one of the nearly 50 wounded died, police said. The attack has raised questions about the new government’s policy of trying to end militant violence through negotiations and will increase concern about prospects for the country, a nuclear-armed US ally making a transition to civilian rule.

Rs 5 mn reward announced for info on blast

The Pakistani government has announced a reward of Rs 5 million for information on the perpetrators of Sunday’s suicide attack near the Lal Masjid that killed 19 people and injured over 40. Rehman Malik, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Interior Affairs, told reporters that a reward of Rs 5 million will be given to any one who helps to identify the suicide bomber and other perpetrators of attack. The torso of the suicide bomber had been found at the site of the blast and a sketch of his face would soon be released, Malik told reporters after visiting victims of the attack in a hospital here late last night.The suicide bomber blew himself up near a large group of policemen shortly after the conclusion of a meeting organised by the religious groups to mark the first anniversary of storming of Lal Masjid by the army.