The bomber struck shortly after 11 a.m. Thursday near United Bakery and Murshid Bazaar in a busy area of Karachi. There are eateries and dairy shops nearby where people come and sit in the evenings.
A Coast Guard vehicle was present at the scene of the blast, so it is believed that the target was a Coast Guard vehicle, but authorities have not confirmed this. South District DIG Police Sharjeel Kharal told the media that he did not think any institution or specific vehicle was the target of the blast.
However, Sodho Sindhi, a spokesman for the Sindh Revolutionary Army, claimed responsibility for the blast, saying the remote-controlled bomb had targeted a Coast Guard vehicle. According to the spokesperson, SRA reiterates its determination to continue resistance till complete independence of Sindh.
This is not the first time that the Sindh Revolutionary Army has targeted Pakistani state institutions. The Sindh Revolutionary Army had earlier carried out operations in Karachi, in which a hand grenade was hurled outside the Ehsas Program Center in Liaquatabad on June 19, 2020, killing one person and injuring eight others, including a Rangers official.
On the same day, an explosion took place near a Rangers vehicle in Ghota Market area of Ghotki city of North Sindh at around 9.30 am. The blast killed two Rangers, Zahoor Ahmed and Fayyaz Shah, including a passerby, Mustafa, and injured two others, including soldier Imtiaz Hussain.
The banned Sindh Desh Revolutionary Army claimed responsibility for the attacks on Rangers in Karachi and Ghotki. A statement issued by the organization said that the attacks were carried out while offering national salute to Niaz Lashari.
It may be recalled that the tortured body of Niaz Lashari, a member of Central Committee of Jai Sindh Qaumi Mahaz Ariser Group, was found on National Highway and Super Highway Link Road.
After a blast near a Rangers vehicle in Karachi, a team of Rangers and Anti-Terrorism Department personnel raided the Pahlawan Goth area near Rabia City in Gulistan-e-Jauhar and arrested four suspects, according to the CTD. Had taken
A CTD spokesperson claimed that the accused belonged to Asghar Shah alias Sajjad Shah group of SRA.
Who is the Indus Revolutionary Army?
The Pakistani government last month banned a group called the Sindh Revolutionary Army on charges of sabotage and anti-state activities.
The Sindh Nationalist Militant Group was formed in 2010. Internal divisions within the banned Jai Sindh United Front led to the formation of this group. Earlier, investigative agencies have been associating the banned Sindh Liberation Army with the Sindh United Front.
The Sindh Revolutionary Army has claimed responsibility for an attack on a HO and Rangers in Karachi, including a vehicle of Chinese engineers in Gulshan-e-Hadid, C-Pak personnel in Sukkur. The militant group opposes the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and Sindh's mineral resources. But claims to be a supporter of local rights.
The Sindh Revolutionary Army is also known as the Asghar Shah Group, the leader of which is known as Shah Inayat. Asghar Shah was arrested in 2005 and released five years later, after which he decided to form his own group.
The outlawed Sindh Desh Revolutionary Army says that Shafi Barfat, the leader of Jai Sindh Muttahida Mahaz, had withdrawn from the armed struggle, during which 40 of his comrades were killed and differences arose. It should be noted that Shafi Barfat and his associates are currently seeking political asylum in Germany.
The separatist movement in Sindh has been going on since 1907 but the color of resistance came in 2000 while Jai Sindh Muttahida Mahaz was born again.
On the cold evening of November 2000, under the leadership of Shafi Muhammad Barfat, two dozen people laid the foundation of Sindh Muttahida Mahaz.
The constitution of this organization includes all the points made by GM Syed, the founder of Jee Sindh Tehreek, but one point was added: resistance or militancy.
Initially in Dadu area high power transmission line, Hyderabad, Kotri, Khairpur, Nowshero Feroze and Jamshoro in different areas including railway tracks were bombed and an unknown organization called Sindh Liberation Army started accepting responsibility for these incidents. ۔ This was the time when the resistance movement was gaining momentum in Balochistan.
Pakistan's state institutions became active in 2003 and a series of disappearances began in Sindh. Dozens of nationalist activists from several cities including Tando Muhammad Khan, Meher, Khairpur Nathan Shah, Hyderabad, Khairpur, Shahdadkot, Ratodero went missing, many of whom announced their intention to join the national mainstream after their release.
Sindh and Balochistan militants together
The Sindh Revolutionary Army is also part of the Baloch militant alliance 'Brass', which was formed specifically against the C-Pak project and its influence in Chinese territory.
DIG CTD Karachi Khurram Ali told that the Sindh Revolutionary Army was an old militant group that had previously been active in other cities in Sindh.
Earlier, Dr Jamil Ahmed, a former Additional IG of Sindh's counter-terrorism department, claimed that a local group was involved in the Karachi and Ghotki attacks, which had the support of Balochistan militants, the neighboring country and the London group.
He said the group had been trained by Balochistan militants and that the explosives used were not locally available.
It may be recalled that in the past, Balochistan National Movement and Jai Sindh Muttahida Mahaz have formed a formal alliance which includes a joint struggle against C-Pak.
Attacks by Sindhi nationalist parties in the past
It may be recalled that a minor blast outside the Chinese Embassy in Karachi in 2013 targeted a Chinese engineer's car in Gulshan-e-Hadid area of Karachi in 2016 and also attacked C-Pack project personnel near Sukkur. These groups have been accepting.
Earlier, in 1987, the then mayor of Hyderabad, Aftab Sheikh, was attacked and seriously injured in Hyderabad. The attack was blamed on JI Sindh workers and a case was registered by the police. Aftab Sheikh belonged to the Mohajir Qaumi Movement.
The following year, in September 1988, unidentified gunmen targeted civilians on the streets in Hyderabad, killing about 150 people, and the case was filed against Dr. Qadir Magsi, Shafi Barfat and others.
The court later acquitted Qadir Magsi and Shafi Burfat escaped. Qadir Magsi is currently the head of Sindh Progressive Party and Shafi Barfat is heading the banned Sindh United Front and is currently seeking political asylum in Germany.
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| A JSQM poster from last year calling for a protest against enforced disappearances |
What is Jay Sindh Tehreek and what are their demands?
On March 3, 1943, GM Syed, a senior Sindh politician, presented a resolution in the Sindh Assembly for the establishment of Pakistan. Sindh was the first province to table the resolution.
But it was GM Syed who came up with the idea of establishing Sindh as an independent state in 1973. Speaking to us, Sindhi writer and historian Khadim Soomro said that this is the time when the 1973 constitution was introduced.
Prior to the drafting of the constitution, GM Syed had made suggestions to Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto to ensure provincial sovereignty and prevent religious extremism and dictatorship, which were ignored.
According to Khadim Soomro, after the approval of the constitution, GM Syed became disillusioned. He was of the view that Sindh would never get rights under this constitution and finally in a student program in Hyderabad he first introduced the concept of Indus State.
Aslam Khairpuri, chairman of the banned JS Sindh National Front Ariser Group, said that he was a follower of GM Syed's ideology under which his destination was Sindh.
But he claimed that his party was fighting peacefully because GM Syed never took up arms. He spent 32 years in prison and detention but did not support violence.
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