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HYDERABAD BOMB BLAST AND FURTHER BOMB SCARES IN KARACHI

Date Reported: Monday, February 07, 2000
Incident Type: SECURITY
Country: KARACHI, PAKISTAN

Incident: The American Consulate in Karachi submitted the following information concerning the recent bombings in Pakistan:

Yet another bomb detonated in the Consulate General Karachi District and once again in the city of Hyderabad, approximately 150 kilometer east of Karachi. The bomb was placed aboard a passenger train departing Hyderabad Station and bound for Mirpurkhas. The initial estimates given were that six persons were killed and approximately fifty injured.

The Regional Security Officer advised February 7 that approximately three minutes after the train pulled out of Hyderabad Station on February 5, a powerful bomb, estimated at 2.5 kilograms and detonated by a timing device, exploded, tearing out the side of the railway car. The police bomb technician advised the RSO that the bomb now appears to have been inside the railway compartment against the bathroom wall and not inside the bathroom as previously reported in the news. The technician stated that the bomb was apparently inside a cooking oil can and appears to have been the high explosive substance identified as C-4 or another similar plastic explosive. The death toll has risen to seven persons and the number of injured is gauged to be closer to sixty. Most of the conversations in Karachi regarding the bombing strongly voice their accusations of the Indian Intelligence Organization (RAW).

Two bomb scares took place in Karachi on February 7 and brought the police running. The first was at the Urdu Science College, where a suspicious item was located in a room under construction. It turned out to be only construction materials. The second was at the Clifton Shopping Center, where a plastic container filled with a chemical was reported but was declared inert by the police.

The specific intentions for the fear and chaos bombing campaign that has plagued Sindh province lately still remain unclear. There have been eleven bombings in Karachi and Hyderabad in the last four months, killing an estimated 27 persons and wounding an estimated 170 persons in markets as well as aboard a bas and a train. Several theories exist but none are certain. One thing remains true; the traditional terrorism "cause and effect" of this type of campaign is working. The citizens feel afraid and uncertain of the government's ability to protect them.