Sri Lanka blast kills up to 60 as explosives go off by accident

[Vehl]

Source: Associated Press

Three containers full of explosives meant for road construction blew up outside a police station in eastern Sri Lanka yesterday, killing as many as 60 people in a blast government officials called an accident.

Images of the blast broadcast on television showed the building reduced to rubble. A military spokesman, Major General Ubaya Medawala, said it was not known what had triggered the explosion.

The containers were being stored next to the police station in the Batticaloa district for safety reasons. The explosives, probably dynamite, were for a road project being carried out by a Chinese company. The dead included police officers and at least two Chinese construction workers.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/17/sri-lanka-explosives-accident-batticaloa

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The 60 casualties include 58 policemen and two Chinese "construction workers'

I find it extremely hard to believe that this was an accident. Especially given the presence of the Chinese "Construction workers".
China is paying nearly a Billion $ per year to Srilanka in order to have a Naval Base built in Southern Lanka. This is part of the Chinese policy of "String of pearls" by which it seeks to contain Virtual Indian dominance of China's Vulnerable underbelly....the Oil lanes of the Indian Ocean which provide 85% of the liquid gold which drive the Chinese economy.


India has been quite lax in the past few years to this maneuvering, but woke up to the reality after Lanka defeated the Tamil rebels with Extensive Chinese and Pakistani help...and the presence of Chinese observers on Lankan Naval vessels which hug the Indian coastal waters.

With Both sides, (China and India) ratcheting up of mutual rhetoric, one is hard pressed not to notice the extreme annoyance Indian government now has towards the Current Srilankan regime. Last week the Lankan government signed quite a few defense agreements with the Chinese government, and I'll be highly surprised if India does nothing to try nullify this Chinese base/listening posts/influence on its southern backyard.


The presence of these so called Chinese "construction workers" in the police station raises my suspicion that this blast was anything but a normal accident.

[pennylane100]

1. What a tragedy,

so many people killed. I hope that is not the beginning of a terror campaign My sympathy to the people if Sri Lanka

[BeFree]

2. Heh

So..... China and India are having a go at controlling the flow of resources?

Pakistan, who is fighting India, is helping China and we are at Pakistan's door.

And the US Navy is stretched a bit thin. Remember, it is the US Navy that has kept resources flowing pretty much freely all these years.

This could get very interesting very quick.

[Vehl]

3. Yes

These picture pretty much sums it up






The Hambantota port on southern lanka (highlighted on the above picture), is where the new Chinese base is. Having a Chinese base there is to India what having a Soviet presence on Cuba was to America.

With India and China at loggerheads of conflicting territorial claims, and China assisting Pakistan; India considers the best way to stalemate China is to monopolize the naval power projection in the Indian ocean, through which 85% of Chinese Oil supply passes.


As of now, both China and India are expanding/modernizing their Navies just for this reason. India has One aircraft carrier operational, and 3 more being built(one in Russia , nearing completion and two in India). Indian navy believes it needs at least 7 carriers (5 being operations at any given time and 2 undergoing refitting/refueling) in order to project its power in the Indian ocean by 2020/25

China is also building a Carrier. If i rem correctly, America and India signed a 10 year Defense pact in 2005 in which India is to gradually take over the Patrolling of the Indian Ocean, as both nations try to pool their naval resources together.


For the past 6 or 7 years India and America have been conducting yearly Naval joint Fleet exercises in that region
http://www.stratpost.com/images-indo-us-naval-exercise-malabar
http://www.marinebuzz.com/2010/05/04/malabar-2010-indo-u-s-joint-naval-exercise-concludes/