A Pakistani separatist group claimed responsibility for a late-night bombing that targeted a convoy with Chinese nationals outside the nation’s largest airport, killing two workers from China and wounding eight people, officials and the insurgent group said yesterday.
The attack by the Baloch Liberation Army outside the airport in the southern port city of Karachi was the latest deadly assault on Chinese in the nation and came a week before Pakistan is to host a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a security grouping founded by China and Russia to counter Western alliances.
Initially, Pakistani authorities gave conflicting details and indicated the explosion might have been from an oil tanker, but police later confirmed it was a bomb attack.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Pakistani news channels broadcast videos of flames engulfing vehicles and a thick column of smoke rising from the scene. Troops and police cordoned off the area.
Counterterrorism officials yesterday were investigating how the attacker reached Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city.
Among the wounded were also police officers who were escorting the Chinese convoy when the attack happened.
A spokesman for the separatist group, Junaid Baloch, yesterday said that one of its suicide bombers targeted the convoy of Chinese engineers and investors as they left the airport.
The Baloch Liberation Army is mainly based in restive southwestern Balochistan Province, but it has also attacked foreigners and security forces in other parts of Pakistan.
The Chinese embassy in Islamabad said Chinese staffers working at Port Qasim Electric Power Co — a coal-powered power plant that is a joint China-Pakistan venture — were in the convoy when it came under attack at about 11pm. Two Chinese nationals were killed and one was wounded, the embassy said, adding that there were also Pakistani casualties, but it did not elaborate.
The Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced the bombing, saying it was a “heinous terrorist attack near Karachi airport.”
It said another Chinese was injured in the attack.
“We extend our deepest condolences and sympathies to the families of the victims, both Chinese and Pakistani, and offer prayers for the swift recovery of the injured,” the ministry said in a statement.
“We remain resolute in bringing to justice those responsible for this cowardly attack,” it added.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he was shocked and saddened by the attack. He said the attackers were “enemies of Pakistan” and promised the perpetrators would be punished.
“I strongly condemn this heinous act and offer my heartfelt condolences to the Chinese leadership & the people of China, particularly the families of the victims,” he wrote on social media. “Pakistan stands committed to safeguarding our Chinese friends. We will leave no stone unturned to ensure their security & well-being.”
Pakistan hosts thousands of Chinese workers as part of Beijing’s multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, which is building major infrastructure projects. The outlawed separatist group, which has long waged an insurgency seeking independence for Balochistan, has repeatedly warned against any Chinese working in Balochistan.
Oil and mineral-rich Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest, but least populated province. It is also a hub for the nation’s ethnic Baloch minority, whose members say they face discrimination and exploitation by the central government. That has fueled a separatist insurgency demanding independence. Islamic militants also operate in the province.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
RSS