Three Chinese nationals and a Pakistani national were reportedly killed in a suicide bombing attack that occurred outside a Chinese-language learning center in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi on April 26.
According to reports, the three were among passengers on a minibus returning to Karachi University when the bomb exploded near the university’s Confucius Institute, killing the Chinese teachers and a Pakistani van driver.
Police said a security guard and another Chinese national were injured in the blast.
Local media showed surveillance footage of a woman dressed in black wearing a backpack standing close to the minibus shortly before the bomb went off and sent up clouds of fire and smoke.
The Majeed Brigade of the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), a terrorist group based in Pakistan’s Balochistan province, claimed responsibility for what it says was a “self-sacrificing attack” that targeted Chinese officials.
“Three Chinese officials, Huang Guiping, Ding Mufang, and Chen Sai, were killed in the attack, whereas Wang Yuqing and their security guards were injured.”
BLA said the attack was carried out by a 30-year-old female suicide bomber named Shaari Baloch, who was a mother of two children and had an advanced education, including master’s degrees in zoology and philosophy.
In its statement, BLA ordered China to “immediately halt its exploitation projects and refrain from aiding the occupying Pakistani state” or face “even harsher” attacks.
China’s Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the attack and demanded the Pakistani authorities punish the perpetrators “to the full extent of the law” and take “all possible measures” to protect Chinese citizens in Pakistan.
“The blood of the Chinese people should not be shed in vain, and those behind this incident will surely pay the price,” the ministry told reporters on April 27.
The bombing was the first major attack against Chinese nationals in Pakistan since last July, when a suicide bomber blew up a passenger bus in northern Pakistan, killing 13 people, including nine Chinese nationals working on a hydro-power plant.
Other attacks on Chinese nationals working in Pakistan have occurred in Balochistan Province, where separatist terrorists have waged an insurgency against authorities for decades.
Balochistan houses a deep-water port in Gwadar city, which Beijing is developing under the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor project as part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative to expand trade linkages.
