KARACHI: Three oil tankers were badly damaged in as many blasts at the Keamari oil tankers terminal and Shershah on Tuesday, according to police.

No casualty was reported in the blasts which were carried out by improvised explosive devices (IEDs) attached to the oil tankers, the officials said.

The IEDs — each weighing 600 grams — along with a magnet were attached to a 40,000-litre-fuel-carrying tanker parked at a shed run by Shell and a 48,000-litre-fuel-carrying tanker of Total in the Keamari area, said City SSP Sheraz Nazeer.

He added that both tankers were empty at the time of the blasts.

If the tankers had been full of petrol or diesel, the blasts would have caused widespread devastation, said a police official who wished not to be named.

After observing the damage, the police official said, it seemed that both devices were attached to the rear part of the tankers but they remained unnoticed by the men who manned security checks there. He added that this put a question mark on the security arrangements at the oil terminal.

The third explosion took place in a moving oil tanker in Shershah, which also damaged the vehicle there.

Keamari SP Zaffar Ali Shah said that the tanker was filled with oil when the IED, which also weighed 500-600 grams and was attached with a timer, exploded in the Shershah area.

He said that the blast damaged one layer of the tanker, but failed to ignite fire since two other layers of the tanker remained intact.

The Keamari police officer claimed that all the three tankers had nothing to do with the fuel supply to the Nato forces in Afghanistan.

“We are investigating all aspects of the blasts,” said Karachi South DIG Barrister Abdul Khalique Sheikh. “We cannot rule out the possibility of sabotage,” the DIG said.

However, he was of the opinion that the blasts looked like a ‘warning’.