QUETTA, May 5: Police detained three more suspects on Wednesday for interrogation in connection with the Gwadar car-bomb explosion that killed three Chinese engineers and wounded 11 others in the coastal town on Monday.

"There is a lot of progress in the interrogation," Malik Yasrab Khan, Deputy Inspector-General Police, Makran Range, told Dawn on telephone from Gwadar. Soon the gang involved in the barbaric act would be netted, he added.

Mr Khan said that joint investigation teams, comprising senior officers of police and other law-enforcement agencies, were investigating all aspects of the remote control car-bomb explosion.

"Joint Investigation teams have got useful and important information about the explosion and the people involved in it during the interrogation of the suspects," he said. "Details of the progress cannot be disclosed at this cortical stage," the DIG said, adding however that no group or organization had yet accepted the responsibility for the blast.

Experts who reached Gwadar from Quetta and Karachi examined the wreckage of the car used in the blast and sent the pieces to the laboratory for further analyses to ascertain the nature of the explosive material and chemicals used in the heinous crime.

"Ten-kilogramme intensity explosive martial was used for the explosion," experts informed the investigators. The Balochistan Inspector-General of Police, Dr Shoaib Suddle, was personally supervising the investigation in Gwadar. He held a number of meetings with the investigation teams and gave them directives regarding the interrogation.

Meanwhile, security arrangements have been further tightened in the coastal town and more contingents of police and Balochistan Reserve Police are deployed in and around the under-construction deep seaport and residential complex of the Chinese Harbour Engineering Company to provide maximum protection to the Chinese engineers and other staff.

The police contingents are also patrolling the harbour road, the seashore and other areas of the township round-the-clock. Check posts are also established at all entry and exit points of the town.

It is learnt here that more personnel of the law enforcement agencies and police are being dispatched to Gwadar for ensuring the security of the Chinese helping Pakistan in building the Gwadar Deep Seaport.

Our Staff Reporter from Islamabad adds: The Frontier Crops had been deployed in Gwadar to provide security to the Chinese workers and officials engaged in port development activities, a source in the interior ministry told Dawn on Wednesday.

The source said the Chinese Embassy had shown concern over law and order situation in Gwadar. "The Chinese ambassador and other diplomats met some top officials in the Prime Minister Secretariat, interior ministry and foreign office and other concerned authorities and discussed the need for prompt investigation into the blast," the source added.

They also asked the government to keep them informed about the progress of the investigation. The Chinese diplomats have asked for complete and effective protection of the Chinese people in Pakistan, the source added.

The source said the government of Pakistan had assured the Chinese diplomats that law enforcement agencies would provide the best possible security to the Chinese personnel and no untoward incident would take place at their workplaces in future.

The government, it is said, suspects foreign hand in the bomb blast and believes that it was a bid to weaken Pakistan-China friendship. Recently, a high-level delegation of the Chinese People's Armed Police had visited the country and discussed security issues and other matters of mutual interest with Pakistani authorities.

The delegation had shared experiences and means of maintaining state security and social stability, the source said. Our Staff Reporter from Karachi adds: A team of investigators, who have expertise in probing bomb explosion cases, has left for Gwadar to investigate into the car-bomb blast.

Well-placed sources in the police department said the team, comprising the investigators of the Crime Investigation Department (CID) Sindh, Raja Omar Khattab, Mazhar Mashwani and Hussain Lahari, and an official from the Investigation Wing, Amir Hameed, was sent to Gwadar on the request of the Balochistan police.

The sources said the investigators were jointly probing into the blast. They would prepare a report on their findings and submit it to the high authorities in a day or two.

An investigator told Dawn on telephone that there was no evidence of a remote-controlled device. "We have not found any evidence so far. But there is a possibility of using the device.

The possibility of using another device to explode rocks cannot be ruled out either as the blast was so powerful that it has destroyed evidence." He said the car used in the blast was stolen from Karachi in 1995.