- Syeda Mazhar
Investigations into the unsuccessful attack on Chinese Consulate in Karachi yesterday have taken a new turn after the officials have traced down links to India.
The military sources said that the plot of the attack was prepared in India. The sources have identified the mastermind of the attack as Aslam Acchu. Aslam alias Acchu is said to be the commander of the banned terrorist group Baloch Liberation Army (BLA). The group has already claimed the responsibility for the Friday’s attack. As per sources, Aslam Achu was injured during a face-off with security forces in Balochistan and is currently receiving medical care in New Delhi’s Max hospital.
BLA has publicly invited Indian forces to intervene in Balochistan saying that the Chinese are plundering our resources in Balochistan. Indian Spy Kulbhushan Jadhav caught red-handed in Balochistan has also confessed to having ties with militant groups in Balochistan and Karachi to fuel the terrorist activities.
Achu was involved in firings on trains in Balochistan 2011 to 2014. He was reportedly injured during a security forces’ combing operation in 2016 in which most of the BLA commanders were killed.The wounded BLA commander had fled to India.Achchu is one of the key commanders of BLA chief Dr Allah Nazar.He is also blamed for killing of lawyers, police personnel, journalists and doctors, the sources said.
In the most significant strike against Chinese interests in Pakistan in years, three militants assaulted the Chinese Consulate in the southern port city of Karachi on Friday morning, killing two policemen and two civilians at a checkpoint before being gunned down by the security forces.
Amir Jan, a driver who had been washing his car near the consulate, said he saw three men with Kalashnikov assault rifles move toward the consulate around 9:15 a.m. He said one threw a grenade before they all opened fire.
Officials later said that two Pakistani civilians, a father and son who had come from Quetta to get Chinese visas, were also killed in the attack.
Prime Minister Imran Khan issued a statement on Twitter insisting that such attacks could not shake the relationship between China and Pakistan. He said the strike had clearly been intended “to scare Chinese investors” and came as a result of trade agreements announced during his trip to China this month.
The Chinese Embassy in Islamabad, the capital, later issued a statement extending condolences over the deaths and expressing faith in Pakistani security. “We believe that the Pakistani side is able to ensure the safety of Chinese institutions and personnel in Pakistan,” the statement said, adding that any attempt to undermine the countries’ relationship was “doomed to fail.”
Assistant Superintendent of Police Suhai Aziz Talpur was amongst the first to rush to the Chinese Consulate in Karachi upon reports of gunshots and blasts heard outside the building. She led the security operation to counter the terrorist attack on the consulate and successfully engaged them on the site. She is the first ASP from the rural area of Sindh. She received appreciation for her courage and bravery from the Cheif Minister Sindh and IG Sindh Police.
After the attack in Karachi, another bombing – this one in the Orakzai region of northwestern Pakistan – showed the continuing threat posed by militants on a separate front.
At least 30 people were killed and 40 or more wounded when a bomb blast ripped through a fruit and vegetable market in the Hangu district there, officials said. The market was near a seminary for Shiite Muslims, a minority in Pakistan that is frequently targeted by extremist Sunni groups. But the dead included a mix of Pakistanis.
Mr. Khan, the prime minister, implicitly linked the two attacks Friday, saying they represented “a planned campaign to create unrest in the country by those who do not want Pakistan to prosper.”
Pakistan has been a showcase for China’s huge international development program, the Belt and Road Initiative, in recent years. China is estimated to have spent some $62 billion on those projects in Pakistan, mostly to build a transportation corridor through Baluchistan to a new, Chinese-operated deepwater port in the Pakistani town of Gwadar.
The road corridor being built through Baluchistan, which is also rich in natural resources, is one of the most strategic projects associated with the Belt and Road Initiative. Its stated purpose is to greatly reduce shipping costs and time for Chinese goods, but it would also give China an important alternative if faced with naval blockades by the United States or its Asian allies.
Baluchistan has also been the center of two resilient insurgencies, making it one of the most sensitive areas for Pakistan’s powerful military establishment: Ethnic Baluch separatists there have been pursued by a stifling Pakistani security presence, and part of the leadership of the Afghan Taliban also continues to take shelter there, in the city of Quetta.
