KARACHI: At least one person sustained minor injuries in a remote-controlled explosion targeting a Chinese engineer in Karachi's Gulshan-i-Hadeed area on Monday, police said.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Rao Anwar said a pamphlet written in Sindhi and bearing the name of a group called 'Sindhudesh Revolutionary Party' was recovered from the site of the blast. The pamphlet denounced "foreign control over Sindh's natural resources".
The pamphlet read [Translation]: "We consider China, rising as a global power, to be an ally of Pakistan, and also consider it an accomplice of the Punjabi Establishment in making Sindh slave to loot its resources, and therefore we accept the responsibility of bomb attack on Chinese in Gulshan-i-Hadeed."
"We want to make it clear to China that we will oppose every anti-Sindh project including the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)," it further said.
The injured was a driver for a Chinese engineer who was residing in the area and traveling on the National Highway heading towards Port Qasim from Gulshan-i-Hadeed without security. The Chinese national was safe, said SSP Rao.
Police cordoned off the area and collected evidence from the scene for investigation. Five hundred grams of explosives were used in the improvised explosive device (IED), which included nuts and bolts.
Witnesses from a truck nearby reported seeing a suspicious item in the green belt of the road, which exploded as the black vehicle carrying the Chinese engineer passed by.
According to DIG East Zone Dr Kamran Fazal, the roadside bomb was planted opposite Quaid-i-Azam Park along National Highway.
Gulshan-i-Hadeed is a neighbourhood in Karachi's Bin Qasim Town. The town is situated near Pakistan Steel Mills and houses its workers.
Hundreds of Chinese workers are currently working all over Pakistan on various development projects, including the CPEC and the Thar coal power project.
In Aug 2015, the Sindh police claimed to have chalked out a comprehensive security plan for Chinese nationals and professionals visiting Karachi and other parts of the province for CPEC-related projects. Nearly six months ago, for 111 Chinese projects, the Sindh police were ensuring security to more than 1,500 nationals of the neighbouring country.
The main responsibility for securing the corridor, vital to Pakistan's long-term prosperity, lies with a new army division established in the last few months and numbering an estimated 13,000 troops.
Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and Inspector General (IG) Sindh AD Khawaja took notice of the incident and called for an investigation.
