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Armed separatists stormed the Chinese consulate on Friday in Karachi, Pakistan 's port city, causing an hour – long shooting during which two Pakistani civilians, two policemen and three attackers were killed, were killed. announced Pakistani officials.
Pakistani civilians killed were a father and a son who went to the consulate to get their visas back in China, the police said.
The indiscriminate assault, claimed by a militant group in the southwestern Baluchistan province, reflected the separatists' attempt to interfere in Pakistan's close ties with China's main ally, China, which has heavily invested in road and transport projects in the country, including Baluchistan.
All diplomats and Chinese staff at the consulate are safe and have not suffered any prejudice during the attack or shootings, said a senior police official, Ameer Ahmad Sheikh. They were evacuated soon after and taken to a safe place.
In the wake of the attack, China has asked Pakistan to strengthen the security of the mission. In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China would not give up its latest big project in Pakistan – the Sino-Pakistani economic corridor – and said it was confident that Pakistan could provide security.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has spoken by phone with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and assured him that a "thorough investigation will be conducted to apprehend the culprits, their financiers, their planners and facilitators "related to the attack on the consulate, according to a Foreign Ministry. declaration.
Yi was quoted as saying that the attack was an attempt to influence relations between Pakistan, China and the CPEC.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan also condemned the attack, describing it as part of a conspiracy against Pakistan and China's economic and strategic cooperation. Khan praised the Karachi police and paramilitary rangers, saying that they had shown exceptional courage in defending the consulate and that the "nation pays tribute to the martyrs".
He also ordered an investigation and promised that such incidents could never undermine relations with China, which are "more powerful than the Himalayas and deeper than the sea of Arabia".
The attackers stormed the consulate shortly after 9:00 am during office hours. They first opened fire on the consulate guards and threw grenades, then managed to cross the main gate and enter the building, said Mohammad Ashfaq, a local police chief.
Pakistani security forces quickly surrounded the area. Local TV stations broadcast images of the building's rising smoke, which also serves as a residence for diplomats and other Chinese personnel.
Several explosions were heard soon after, but Sheikh could not say what they were. The shooting lasted about an hour.
"Because of the rapid reaction of the guards and the police, the terrorists have not been able to reach the diplomats," said Sheikh after the fighting ended. "We have completed the operation."
He added that one of the attackers was wearing a safety vest and that the authorities were trying to identify the attackers by means of fingerprints. Seemi Jamali, spokesman for Jinnah Hospital, said that a consulate guard had also been injured during the attack and that he was being treated at the hospital.
Geng, the Chinese spokesman, said that the attackers had failed to get into the consulate and that the exchange of fire had occurred outside the building. The divergence with Pakistani officials' reports could not be immediately reconciled.
Elsewhere in Pakistan, a powerful bomb fell on an open-air food market in the Orakzai region of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan, killing 35 people and killing tens injured, said police chief Tahir Ali.
Most of the victims of the attack in the city of Klaya were Muslims belonging to the Shia minority. Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing. Orakzai has been the scene of several attacks by activists in recent years, mostly from Sunni Pakistani militants, who insult Shia of apostates.
In its claim for responsibility for the Karachi attack, the Baloch Liberation Army said that it was fighting "Chinese occupation" and published photos of the three attackers.
This was the second attack this year by Baloch separatists in Pakistan. Karachi, the capital of Sindh province on the Baluchistan border, has several militant groups, including Baluch separatists.
In August, a suicide bomber hit a bus carrying Chinese workers to the Saindak mining project in southwestern Baluchistan, injuring five workers. The project is controlled by the Chinese company Metallurgical Corporation, owned by the Chinese state. And in May, gunmen opened fire on two Chinese nationals in Karachi, killing one of them and wounding each other.
Friday 's attack was an increase in the level of violence perpetrated by the Baloch separatist, said Amir Rana, executive director of the Pakistan Independent Institute of Peace Studies.
So far this year, the Baluch Liberation Army has claimed 12 attacks against security personnel overseeing projects related to the "economic corridor between Pakistan and China" and to the infrastructure.
In a letter dated August 15, the group issued a letter warning China against "the exploitation of Baluchistan's mineral wealth and the occupation of Baluchi territory". The letter was addressed to the Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan.
But, according to Rana, China and Pakistan have both calculated the security risks, including the threats made by the Baloch separatist.
"I do not see that this will have an impact on the Chinese projects in Pakistan, these threats were already visible on the threat radar of Pakistan and China," he said.
The attack will force China to strengthen security around its people in Pakistan and to strengthen cooperation with local authorities, said Zhao Gancheng of the Shanghai Foreign Studies Institute. But he said it would not deter the Chinese government and companies from extending their footprint overseas, even if they took extra precautions.
"As more and more Chinese go abroad and more and more Chinese investments go abroad, the security situation in destination countries has become a reality. very important element to take into account, "Zhao told the Associated Press.
China is a long-time ally and has invested heavily in transport projects in Pakistan. The two countries have strengthened their ties in recent years and China is currently building a network of roads and power plants as part of a project called the Sino-Pakistan Economic Corridor, or CPEC.
Baluchistan's separatists have been fighting a low-intensity insurgency in Pakistan for years, demanding a greater share of the province's wealth and natural resources
In a rare statement about the attacks in Pakistan, neighboring India condemned the assault on the Chinese consulate, saying that "there can be no justification for any act of terrorism" .
New Delhi also said that "the perpetrators of this heinous attack should be brought to justice quickly".
Pakistan has long accused India of supporting Baluch separatists. The two countries have bitter relations and have waged two of their three wars in the controversial Kashmir region since independence from Britain in 1947.
Munir Ahmed and Kathy Gannon, editors of the Islamabad press, and Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan; Christopher Bodeen in Beijing and Ashok Sharma in New Delhi contributed to this report.
