Four people, including three Chinese nationals, were killed in Karachi, Pakistan on Tuesday (April 26th), reports the South China Morning Post. A suicide bomb attack hit the minibus that was transporting them near the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi, causing another Chinese man to be injured.
Among the victims are the director and a teacher of this Confucius Institute, responsible for disseminating Chinese language and culture abroad. This terrorist act was claimed by the Majid Brigade, “the Balochistan Liberation Army suicide squad, which is behind several recent bombings against Chinese workers in Pakistan,” explains the Hong Kong daily.
The Majid Brigade claims that a woman carried out the attack, which would be a first “since the start of the uprising in the western province of Balochistan in 2005”. As reminded by South China Morning Post: “Chinese people are regularly targeted by separatists in the province, where Beijing is involved in huge infrastructure projects, as part of its New Silk Roads.”
“The lucrative mining and energy projects launched in the region have long fueled resentment among separatists, who say locals don’t see the benefits.”
According to This Week in Asia, cited by the South China Morning Post, at least nine Chinese nationals have been killed in attacks in Pakistan since 2004. Not to mention the nine workers who lost their lives last July in an unclaimed suicide bombing.