Attack on Chinese 'act of terror'

A massive car bomb exploded in the port town of Gawadar yesterday killing three Chinese technicians and wounding 11 others working at one of Pakistan's biggest construction projects, top government officials said.

Nine of the injured were Chinese, while two were Pakistanis - a driver and a security guard, they said.

"Terrorists blew up a Suzuki Alto car packed with explosives when a passenger van carrying Chinese workers were passing on the main Harbour Road early morning," a senior police official told Gulf News by telephone from Gawadar.

The van was on its way to the under-construction deep-sea port from the Chinese Residential Complex in Gawadar, Baluchistan, located around 500 km west of the port city of Karachi, he said.

"The vehicle, in which the explosives were placed, had blown up to small pieces," said Lal Mohammed, a senior police official.

Another senior provincial police official, Malik Yasrab, said police have found a cylinder near the wreckage of the car.

Police said the explosion was triggered by a remote control. "It was not a suicide attack. We found no traces of human remains in the blown up vehicles," said an intelligence official on condition of anonymity.

Federal Communications Minister Babar Khan Ghauri said the three Chinese technicians killed in the attack have been identified as Hao Guang Chun, Guo Qih Ong and Zhoru Xue Meg.

"At least three of the injured victim are in critical condition," he said.

Bodies and the injured were flown to Karachi hours after the bombing.

"It is an act of terrorism," Ghauri said by telephone from the capital Islamabad. "It is the work of those forces which do not want progress and development in Baluchistan and Pakistan," he said.

Police have launched massive an investigation, but so far they were clueless about the culprits.

But senior officials said that the hardline Baluch nationalists were among the key suspects.

Baluch nationalists have been opposing the $245 million Gawadar deep-seaport on grounds that the local population was denied its due share in jobs and development work.

They have also expressed apprehensions that the locals would be transformed into a minority because of the influx of workers from other parts of the country.

Last month, Baluch nationalist leader and a former chief minister Attaullah Khan Mengal had warned the government that foreigners and settlers would not be safe in Baluchistan if it went ahead with this project at the rights of the locals. The warning was given at a public meeting in Karachi.

But so far no group has claimed responsibility of the attack.

Baluch nationalists have a history of militant struggle against Pakistani forces. In the early 1970s, army crushed a Baluch secessionist revolt.

During the last few years, there have been a series of small bomb explosions and rocket attacks in Quetta - Baluchistan's capital - targeting government buildings. A little known Baluchistan National Army claimed responsibilities of these attacks.

Foreigners, especially Westerners had been targeted in Pakistan by militants - but this was the first time that Chinese came under attack.

China enjoys massive goodwill among Pakistanis and is seen as an "all weather friend." The Chinese are contributing $198 million in the deep-sea port which Islamabad sees opening Pakistan's trade route to Central Asia through the landlocked Afghanistan.

Ghauri said despite the explosion work on the project would continue unhindered.

"I have met Chinese ambassador who has assured me that the work would go on," he said. "We have tightened security for our Chinese friends and would make sure no such tragic incident occurs again and the culprits are arrested."