A Chinese engineer and his Pakistani driver were injured today in a roadside blast here, claimed by a little-known separatist group that vowed to derail the ambitious USD 46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
The two men were injured when a remote-controlled explosion hit their minibus at about 8.30 AM when they were passing through Gulshan-i-Hadeed area of Karachi.
Senior Superintendent of Police Rao Anwar said that police recovered a pamphlet written in Sindhi and bearing the name of a group called 'Sindhudesh Revolutionary Party' from the site of the blast.
"We have recovered a pamphlet in Sindhi from the site of the blast denouncing foreign control over Sindh's natural resources," Anwar said.
In the pamphlet, the 'Sindhudesh Revolutionary Party' warned China against looting Sindh's resources.
"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," the pamphlet said.
"We want to make it clear to China that we will oppose every anti-Sindh project including the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)," it added.
Hundreds of Chinese workers and engineers are engaged in different development projects in Pakistan including the ambitious economic corridor project launched last year.
Nearly six months ago, for 111 Chinese projects, the Sindh police were ensuring security to more than 1,500 nationals of the neighbouring country, Dawn reported.
The main responsibility for securing the economic 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.
The targeting of the Chinese engineer is likely to alarm the government, prompting it to revise its security plan for the economic corridor project, experts said.
In 2004, three Chinese engineers were killed in a car explosion in Gwadar.
China has asked Pakistan to beef up security for its nationals engaged in various development projects in the country.
In a meeting with Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan in October, Chinese envoy Sun Weidong had sought fool- proof security to all Chinese workers working on the project.
Following the meeting, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had reviewed the security situation in November and assured that the government will provide full security to Chinese workers in Pakistan.
