Are Sindhi rebels behind the Karachi blast that targeted Pakistani Coast Guard vehicle

New Delhi: A bomb blast in a Karachi market on Thursday killed one person and injured 13, four of whom are serious. The blast is believed to have been carried out by the Sindhudesh Revolutionary Army (SRA).

This was the second attack in Karachi in just a fortnight. An earlier blast on April 26 was carried out by Shari Baloch, a female suicide bomber of the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), that killed three Chinese teachers of the Confucius Institute and their Pakistani driver in the Karachi University.

Geo News reported that emergency was imposed in public hospitals in Karachi after the bomb attack, which also damaged half a dozen vehicles.

The local police said that the locally-made bomb was planted in a motorcycle and contained ball bearings. A vehicle belonging to the Pakistani Coast Guard was damaged but the individuals in the vehicle, as well as the driver, are safe.

Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon, who visited the site of the blast said: "There is a terror threat not only in Karachi but across the country", adding that those responsible for the blast will be caught.

Pakistani authorities have not pointed out any organisation for the blast as yet.

However, Sindh is in the crosshairs of nationalist groups from both Balochistan and Sindh, who have been carrying out attacks in Karachi, known as Pakistan's financial capital. Local rebel outfit SRA had joined hands with Baloch rebels to form the umbrella group -- Baloch Raaji Aajoi Sangar (BRAS) to fight for independence for both the provinces.

The SRA has been carrying out a low-intensity campaign against the settling of "outsiders" in Sindh, alleging that the Pakistani government is carrying out demographic changes. In April this year the SRA had carried out blasts at railway tracks in the Hyderabad division of Sindh. Numerous local organisations have been voicing their discomfort at Afghans and Pushtuns being relocated to Sindh.

The Sindhis have also been voicing their complaint at Chinese investment in their province, which began in late 2020 after former president Imran Khan's government promulgated the Island Ordinance to allow some of the largest Sindh islands to be given to China for redevelopment.

Another grouse among the Sindhi groups is the acute scarcity of water in their province, which they allege is because of the large network of dams and canals on the river Indus. Sindhi groups allege that many of these large hydropower projects are being carried out by China to benefit Pakistan's Punjab with water and power at the expense of Sindh.