Pakistanis say Karachi bombers aim at ethnic split

By Imtiaz Shah

KARACHI (Reuters) - Authorities in the Pakistani city of Karachi blamed on Tuesday "undemocratic forces" trying to stir ethnic unrest for seven small bombs the previous day that wounded 43 people.

There was no claim of responsibility for the low-intensity blasts that went off in different places in quick succession on Monday evening, most in ethnic Pashtun neighbourhoods.

Pakistan's biggest city and its commercial capital has long been a tinder box, plagued by sectarian, ethnic and religious militant violence.

But some analysts said the blasts did not bear the hallmark of Taliban or al Qaeda militants blamed for a wave of suicide bomb attacks, and instead suspected old rivalries between city factions were behind the bombs.

That has raised fears of a return of the ethnic enmity that ravaged Karachi in the 1980s and early 1990s, and could present another huge problem for a fragile federal coalition government grappling with an economic crisis and Islamist violence.

Provincial Interior Minister Zulfiqar Mirza told a news conference the people of the city had matured since the old days of violence, when a traffic accident could spark ethnic bloodshed, and those differences could no longer be exploited.

"Undemocratic forces or those who are enemies of Pakistan think the people of Karachi are still immature. So it was an effort on part of those people," Mirza said.

He did not elaborate on who he thought was behind the blasts but thanked the city's two main rival groups, Pashtuns and mohajirs, Urdu-speakers whose families moved from India upon the partition of British India in 1947, for their patience.