NEW DELHI, April 27 (NNN-Bernama) — The bomb blast that killed three Chinese teachers in Pakistan’s largest city and business hub of Karachi on Tuesday is seen as aimed at harming Pakistan-China relations and economic projects.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif accompanied by some of his ministers, including Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar and Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan, visited the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad to offer his condolences.
The attack won’t succeed in harming “the great bilateral relations between the two states,” the Pakistan prime minister said.
Shehbaz assured Chinese charge d’affaires Pang Chunxue that “the incident would be investigated expeditiously and the country would make an example out of the culprits behind this horrific attack,” the prime minister’s office said in a social media post.
“The cowardly incident is a direct attack on the Pakistan-China friendship and ongoing cooperation. Pakistan and China are close friends and iron-brothers. Pakistan attaches great importance to safety and security of Chinese nationals, projects and institutions in Pakistan,” Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
Three Chinese citizens and their Pakistani driver were killed in the suicide attack, which took place near Karachi University’s Chinese-run Confucius Institute.
The Baloch Liberation Army terrorist group, which opposes infrastructure projects being built under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), claimed responsibility for the blast.
Highways, power plants and industrial zones are part of China’s huge investments in Pakistan and enjoy widespread public and political support.
“This is yet another attack with a specific agenda of trying to undermine Pakistan-China strategic relationship. We must ensure the defeat of this foreign-backed agenda of our enemies,” former prime minister Imran Khan said.
Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah briefed the Chinese consul general in Karachi on the attack.
“Some elements do not like the Pakistan-China partnership,” Murad was quoted as saying in a media report.
Terrorist groups have targeted Chinese staff working for Pakistani infrastructure projects before.
Last year nine Chinese nationals and four Pakistanis were killed in a blast on a bus carrying them to the 4,300-megawatt Dasu hydropower project site in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
That attack was blamed on the so-called Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry in a statement on its website on Tuesday warned those behind the latest attack “will surely pay the price.”
— NNN-BERNAMA
