TWO people were killed in a massive blast near a major airport in Pakistan after rebels targeted ‘foreign investors’ in a bomb attack.
The Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the deadly attack that targeted a convoy with Chinese nationals in the port city of Karachi.
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At least ten people have been injured in the Sunday night explosion that the Chinese embassy in Pakistan branded a “terrorist attack” targeting Chinese engineers working on a power project.
Horrific footage shows cars engulfed in flames as thick black smoke rises.
The attack 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.
Among the wounded were also police officers who were escorting the Chinese convoy when the attack happened.
The spokesman for the separatist group, Junaid Baloch, said Monday that one of their suicide bombers targeted the convoy of Chinese engineers and investors as they left the airport.
The Baloch Liberation Army is mainly based in the restive southwestern Balochistan province but it has also attacked foreigners and security forces in other parts of Pakistan in recent years.
The Chinese Embassy in Islamabad said Chinese staffers working at the Port Qasim Electric Power Company a coal-powered power plant that’s a joint China-Pakistan venture were in the convoy when it came under attack around 11 p.m.
Pakistan’s 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,” said the ministry in a statement.
“We remain resolute in bringing to justice those responsible for this cowardly attack,” it added.
Pakistan’s 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 the social media platform X.
Pakistan stands committed to safeguarding our Chinese friends,” he added. “We will leave no stone unturned to ensure their security & well-being.
The Sunday night attack followed deadly attacks in August that killed more than 50 people in Balochistan.
Sharif at the time said the attackers sought to harm Chinese-funded development projects.
In March, in northwestern Pakistan, a suicide bombing killed five Chinese engineers and their Pakistani driver as they headed to the Dasu Dam, the country’s biggest hydropower project.
