(Updates casualties, adds police quotes)

By Faisal Aziz

KARACHI, Jan 14 (Reuters) - At least eight people were killed on Monday when a roadside bomb exploded in Pakistan's biggest city, Karachi, police said, the latest attack in a wave of violence in the South Asian country.

The blast occurred in a low-income neighbourhood close to one of the city's main industrial areas.

"According to the reports that we have so far, eight people have been killed in the blast and around 40 wounded," Azhar Ali Farooqi, police chief of Sindh province, told Reuters. Karachi is the capital of Sindh.

Farooqi said the bomb was planted in a motorcycle and was not a suicide attack. "It was an improvised electronic device (IED) and was planted in a motorbike that was parked next to a roadside cart," he said.

Dozens of people gathered at the site of the explosion and chanted anti-government slogans. Paramilitary Rangers were later deployed in the area.

A wave of violence has killed hundreds of people in Pakistan in recent months, including opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, assassinated in a gun-and-bomb attack on in the city of Rawalpindi on Dec. 27.

Last week, 16 policemen and three civilians were killed in a suicide attack in the eastern city of Lahore.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks but the government has blamed al Qaeda-linked militants based in the lawless tribal region on the Afghan border.

President Pervez Musharraf, who is visiting Karachi, told a gathering earlier that militancy posed a big threat to the country and his government was resolved to weed it out.

"The president said this was a serious challenge to the country and the nation would have to fight this menace jointly and boldly," the official Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

The violence has compounded fears of insecurity weeks before a Feb. 18 election that could weaken Musharraf's grip on power as his allies are expected to fare poorly.

The election is meant to complete a transition to civilian rule in the nuclear-armed U.S. ally. The vote was meant to take place on Jan. 8 but was postponed after Bhutto's killing.

Pakistan has increased security before an annual mourning period for minority Shi'ite Muslims that has been marred by sectarian attacks in recent years. (Additional reporting by Imtiaz Shah, editing by Zeeshan Haider and Tim Pearce)

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