Deadly explosion of an oil tanker in Pakistan

A tanker truck exploded near Karachi’s international airport, killing two people and injuring 10, Pakistani media reported, citing the regional interior minister as saying the blast was an act of terrorism.

The attack, said Zia Hassan Lanjhar, the interior minister of Sindh province, targeted a foreign national traveling in a car near the airport where the tanker truck was parked. The target was among those injured in the blast, the Tribune reported, citing the government official.

An unnamed official from the local Interior Ministry told The Associated Press that the target of the attack was a Chinese national. The two blast victims were also Chinese nationals, the AP report said.

The report also cited a statement from the Chinese embassy in Pakistan that said the blast involved a convoy carrying Chinese workers for the local Port Qasim power company.

“We are determining the nature and reasons for the explosion. It takes time,” a local police official told the media, as quoted by CNN.

Earlier this year, a suicide terrorist attack on Chinese workers in Pakistan killed five people, prompting the Chinese government to ask Pakistani authorities to step up security around Chinese nationals working in the country. There are plenty of these as Pakistan is one of the participants in Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.

The country has received billions in Chinese investment under the initiative’s flagship project, called the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, VOA reported earlier this year, noting that the project has been targeted by Islamist radicals and Baluchi nationalists.

The report noted that since 2017, at least 19 Chinese nationals have been killed in Pakistan. In response, the Pakistani authorities formed special security services to serve the Belt and Road projects and the workers employed in them.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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