A kamikaze woman who killed three Chinese teachers in Pakistan was also a teacher who had enrolled in a postgraduate class a few months before the attack and worked for the Balochistan separatist movement, a Pakistani official said today.
THE attack A 30-year-old woman was killed in a car bomb blast outside the Karachi University’s Confucius Institute, a Chinese cultural center and language center, killing herself, three Chinese teachers and a Pakistani guide.
This was the first major attack this year against Chinese nationals working in Pakistan, and provoked Beijing’s condemnation.
A separatist organization, the Balochistan Liberation Army, based in the southwestern province of Balochistan, said the perpetrator, a mother of two who had a degree in Zoology and was studying for another degree, had offered to execute China, whose investment plans in Balochistan are opposed by the organization.
“The Balochistan Liberation Army warns China once again to stop its exploitation plans immediately … Otherwise our future attacks will be even harsher,” the group said in an email.
The group, which has claimed responsibility for the attack and has carried out several major attacks on Chinese interests in Pakistan, said it was the first time a woman had committed suicide.
Its members have been fighting for decades to secure a larger share of the province’s natural energy resources, mainly focusing their attacks on gas projects, infrastructure and security forces.
But in recent years they have carried out attacks on Chinese infrastructure projects and workers.
The security of Chinese officials working on various infrastructure projects in Pakistan has long preoccupied Beijing, which has invested billions of dollars in recent years in that country.
Projects funded by China often cause great inconvenience to Pakistanespecially in Balochistan separatist organizations, which believe that the local population has no benefit, with the majority of jobs returning to the Chinese.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the attack and called on Pakistan to punish the perpetrators and prevent possible such incidents in the future.
A Pakistani interior ministry spokesman, who declined to be named, said the woman, who was a science professor from Balochistan, had enrolled in a second postgraduate program at Karachi University about five months ago.
Police and civilian and military intelligence services are conducting an investigation, according to the official.
The threat of suicide attacks by the group will be a major thorn in Pakistan’s side as it seeks to reassure China that it is doing all it can to protect its infrastructure and its citizens.
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