Coming at the heels of Tuesday's parcel bomb blast near a check-post at the Karachi Port, and synchronising with the increase in its death toll from one to two, much more shocking, indeed, were the two intermittent explosions that occurred, some 22 hours later, outside the Pakistan American Cultural Centre and near the United States Consul General's residence.
It will thus be noted that the latest blasts came about while the investigators were still looking into the case of the earlier day's parcel bomb explosion and, according to police version, drawing on the expertise of other sensitive agencies and the explosive experts.
Seemingly intrigued, though, by the Tuesday blast, Provincial Police Officer, Syed Kamal Shah had dismissed the possibility it being a case of suicide bombing, had pointed to the need of ascertaining as to how the terrorists reached the spot, crossing all the security checks.
Incidentally, similar should be the worry regarding the grisly outcome of Wednesday's explosions so close to PACC, both trouble spots counted among the busiest parts of Karachi, though for different reasons.
Needless, as such to point out, this will leave more cause of concern over security lapses at both points, particularly at the scene of Wednesday's tragedy, which is believed to have been made extremely secure for understandable reasons.
For one thing, it resulted in the killing of one policemen and seriously injuring five other police officials, besides dozens of media people, in a 20 metre radius in Karachi's red security zone of the metropolis.
The bombing had been ingeniously planned. For the second blast followed the first one some 20 minutes later, when the policemen, reporters and press and TV photographers had rushed to the spot to fall victim to it.
All in all, the way the ingenious strike seems to been calculated this time first to collect a large crowd, comprising not only policemen and journalists but also other panic-stricken people and then to set off the second explosion.
A similar scene was enacted the next day when following wide-spread rumours dozens of Edhi ambulances and police vans rushed to Guru Mandir and telephone bells started ringing at Business Recorder, the only newspaper office in the area, the callers anxiously asking for details, while people in large numbers gathered in the streets to find out what had happened.
It is, however, just another matter that nobody around the place had heard an explosion.
Nevertheless ambulances kept trying in vain to locate the point of the blast that had never taken place, with the traffic police blocking the movement of vehicles in sheer chaos and confusion.
Had it not been for the presence of mind of a policeman, who having sensed the danger of a real blast in that kind of a situation, warned of this threat, to disperse the crowd.
Thus was averted another explosion, if one was planned to follow the rumours. The panic and chaos did not last long and ended within 20 minutes.
There is, then, the need for a thorough investigation into the rumour-led terrorist activity.
Increasingly ingenious as the terrorist plans tend to become, it will be in the fitness of things for the government to respond to them with greater imagination and vigour.
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