3 injured in a suicide attack on a convoy of Japanese workers in Pakistan

Pakistani police announced that a suicide bomber detonated his vest filled with explosives near a bulletproof van carrying Japanese workers in the port city of Karachi in southern Pakistan, injuring three people.

According to Arshad Aswan, the local police chief, the van was going to an industrial area where five Japanese citizens work at Suzuki Motors Pakistan.

He said that the Japanese nationals survived Friday’s attack, and said that the three injured were in stable condition in the hospital.

After receiving reports of possible attacks on foreigners working in Pakistan on various Chinese-funded and other projects, two security guards were in the bulletproof van.

Another suicide bomber riding a motorcycle was shot dead by police patrolling the area, police said. Tariq Mastavi, a senior police officer, said that the quick response of the police thwarted the attack.

No individual or group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and the capital of the southern province of Sindh.

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif condemned the attack on Japanese workers.

In the past, armed groups have targeted Chinese nationals working in projects related to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). China is one of Pakistan’s closest allies and has invested $62 billion in the CPEC infrastructure project, which includes a series of highways connecting southwestern China to the port of Gwadar on the Oman Sea.

In March, five Chinese and their Pakistani driver were killed by a suicide bomber near the city of Basham in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.