Two policemen were killed on Friday when gunmen stormed the Chinese consulate in the Pakistani city of Karachi, officials said, with the attack claimed by a separatist group which branded Beijing \u201can oppressor\u201d.<\/p>\n
Pakistani<\/a>\u00a0authorities said that security forces had secured the area after the attack, the latest in a series of assaults on\u00a0Chinese\u00a0<\/a>nationals, including workers involved in a multi-billion dollar infrastructure project in the country.<\/p>\n Multiple gunmen tried to enter the consulate in the southern port city, but were intercepted by guards at a checkpoint, senior local police official Javaid Alam Odho told AFP.<\/p>\n An exchange of fire resulted in the \u201ckilling two of our constables and critically wounding another\u201d, he said, adding that at least one attacker had been wearing a suicide vest which did not detonate.<\/p>\n Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told reporters in Islamabad that \u201call the terrorists have been eliminated\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cTerrorists attempted to enter Chinese consulate. Rangers and police have got control. Three terrorists killed. All Chinese safe. Situation under control,\u201d the military\u2019s media wing said in a statement.<\/p>\n The attack was claimed by a separatist militant group from Pakistan\u2019s southwestern province of Balochistan, which is at the centre of a major Chinese investment project in the country.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have carried out this attack and our action is continuing,\u201d the spokesman for the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), Geand Baloch, told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have been seeing the Chinese as an oppressor, along with Pakistani forces,\u201d he said, adding they were \u201cdestroying the future of Balochistan\u201d.<\/p>\n The BLA is just one of the militant groups operating in Balochistan, Pakistan\u2019s largest and poorest province, which is rife with ethnic, sectarian and separatist insurgencies.<\/p>\n Residents of the resource-rich province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, have long complained that it does not receive a fair share of the profits made from its mineral wealth.<\/p>\n Chinese investment<\/strong><\/p>\n China, one of Pakistan\u2019s closest allies, has poured billions into the South Asian country in recent years as part of a massive infrastructure project that seeks to connect its western province Xinjiang with the Arabian Sea port of Gwadar, in Balochistan.<\/p>\n The project, the\u00a0China-Pakistan Economic Corridor,<\/a>\u00a0is one of the largest in Beijing\u2019s \u201cOne Belt One Road\u201d initiative, comprising a network of roads and sea routes involving 65 countries.<\/p>\n For Pakistan, participating in the project presents an enormous challenge in a country plagued by weak institutions, endemic corruption and a range of insurgencies in areas slated to host the corridor.<\/p>\n The subject of economic dividends from CPEC is extremely sensitive in some of the areas the corridor will run through\u00a0particularly in Balochistan.<\/p>\n Since the beginning of the project militants have repeatedly attacked construction sites, blowing up numerous gas pipelines and trains, and targeted Chinese workers.<\/p>\n In August this year three Chinese nationals were among six wounded in a suicide attack on a bus transporting Chinese engineers working on a mining project in Balochistan, in an attack that was also claimed by the BLA.<\/p>\n China has said it is confident the Pakistani military\u00a0which has been repeatedly accused by international rights groups of abuses in Balochistan\u00a0is in control of the issue.<\/p>\n Islamabad regularly accuses its eastern neighbour India of funding and arming Baloch separatists, and of targeting development projects in the province, particularly CPEC.<\/p>\n Karachi, Pakistan\u2019s largest city and the capital of Sindh province which neighbours Balochistan, was for years rife with political, sectarian and ethnic militancy.<\/p>\n A crackdown in the city by security forces in recent years has brought a lull in violence, but scattered attacks still take place.<\/p>\n (AFP)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Two policemen were killed on Friday when gunmen stormed the Chinese consulate in the Pakistani city of Karachi, officials said, with the attack claimed by a separatist group which branded Beijing \u201can oppressor\u201d. Pakistani\u00a0authorities said that security forces had secured the area after the attack, the latest in a series of assaults on\u00a0Chinese\u00a0nationals, including workers involved in a multi-billion dollar… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2522"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2523,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2522\/revisions\/2523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}