Karachi Blast: Attack on Chinese consulate in Pakistan, 2 cops killed

November 23, 2018:

On Friday, at least two police officers were killed near the Chinese Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan,early in morning in an extended gun battle.

Police officials said they believed there were three or four attackers who were trying to gain access to the consulate compound, but were stopped at a security checkpoint outside.

Three attackers were reported killed, according to a senior Karachi police official, Amir Shaikh, and the police said that an explosive vest had been recovered. One wounded police officer was taken to a hospital near the site of the attack.

The area, near the Arabian Sea, includes a large mall. The gunfire could be heard from several miles away, and witnesses on social media posted photos of smoke rising into the air. Schools in the area were placed on lockdown.

A social media account claiming to be associated with the Baluch Liberation Army, a separatist group in the sprawling & violent province of Baluchistan, said that the group had claimed responsibility for the attack and that it had been aimed at the Chinese Consulate. Separate confirmation was not immediately available.

Karachi, home to 15 million people, is Pakistan’s largest city and its economic powerhouse.

Pakistan has tightened its economic ties to China in recent years, with Beijing recently giving Pakistan a $2 billion loan to help shore up its finances, money that followed $1 billion that was given by Chinese banks in April.

China has called Pakistan a showcase for its sprawling, international development campaign, the Belt and Road Initiative. China is estimated to have spent some $62 billion on projects in Pakistan, mostly in the sprawling and violent Baluchistan Province.

But China has also come under increasing criticism in Pakistan, including over its treatment of ethnic Uighur Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region.

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