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Two Chinese workers were killed and several injured in an explosion outside Pakistan’s biggest airport on Sunday night, just days ahead of the Shangai Cooperation Organisation summit in Islamabad.
The Chinese embassy in Pakistan said the workers were killed in a targeted attack on a convoy carrying Chinese staff of the Port Qasim Electric Power Company Private Limited at around 11pm.
It said the death toll could rise as there was an unspecified number of Pakistani casualties as well.
The embassy condemned the “terrorist attack”, expressed “deep condolences to the innocent victims of both countries”, and called for a thorough investigation to punish the perpetrators.
Police and army were rushed to the scene after the blast was heard near the Karachi international airport.
The outlawed Balochistan Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the attack but this could not be independently verified.
The separatist group has claimed several attacks on Chinese workers involved in projects in the country in the last few years.
The group claimed in a statement that its Majeed Brigade “targeted a high-level convoy of Chinese engineers and investors” leaving the Jinnah airport.
This was the latest in a spate of terrorist strikes targeting workers involved in projects linked to the China-Pakistan economic corridor. The project, launched in 2015, includes building and improving roads and rail systems to link western China’s Xinjiang region to Pakistan’s Gwadar port on the Arabian sea.
The project is part of Chinese president Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative, which is aimed at increasing trade by building infrastructure around the world.
The attack comes ahead of this month’s summit of the Shangai Cooperation Organisation, a trans-regional grouping that focuses on security cooperation, with fighting terrorism a key aspect.
The explosion was so powerful it reportedly rang across the city. Footage of the aftermath of the blast showed several vehicles engulfed in flames.
Pakistani authorities are yet to confirm if it was a terrorist attack. The provincial Sindh government initially said an oil tanker exploded in the area.
Sindh home minister Ziaul Hasan Lanjar said it was suspected the blast was likely caused by an improvised explosive device.
The minister’s office said a “tanker truck” exploded at the scene and that he was in touch with police to “ascertain the facts”.
The Taliban, which governs neighbouring Afghanistan, said tensions between the Pakistani government and “supporters of the political opposition” has reached a “concerning level”.
“We are closely monitoring the situation in Pakistan and hope that the Pakistani government and influential institutions will respond to the growing dissatisfaction in a reasonable and realistic manner,” the Taliban said in a statement.
In March this year, a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a convoy of Chinese engineers and workers, killing five of them in Bisham in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Pakistani authorities alleged that the attack was planned in neighbouring Afghanistan and that the bomber was an Afghan citizen.
Pakistan has accused the Taliban government of failing to prevent the use of Afghan soil for cross-border terrorism. The Taliban has rejected the allegation and blamed the violence on dissatisfaction among Pakistan’s people.
In April 2022, the Balochistan Liberation Army said it killed three Chinese tutors and a Pakistani driver in a suicide bombing attack near Karachi University.
