KARACHI: The outlawed Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) has claimed responsibility for the explosion which ripped through a van inside the Karachi University.
A woman suicide bomber from a proscribed group killed four people, including three Chinese nationals, in an attack on a vehicle carrying staff from the Confucious Institute affiliated with the Karachi University.
The Majeed Brigade of the Baloch Liberation Army accepts responsibility of the attack on Chinese in Karachi, the group’s spokesman Jeeyand Baloch said in a statement published in English. The mission was the first to be carried out be a female militant, he added.
The group’s statement that followed the attack identified the bomber as Shari Baluch or Bramsh, saying she was the group’s first female bomber. Karachi police confirmed four people had died in the attack, including three Chinese nationals.
The BLA has targeted Chinese nationals in attacks in the past. This is the first major attack on Chinese nationals in Pakistan since the bombing of a bus at Dasu in the northwest in July 2021 that killed nine Chinese nationals.
Karachi police chief Ghulam Nabi Memon said the initial investigation suggests a suicide bomber was behind the attack. He said closed-circuit television footage from the site showed a person dressed in the burqa walking up to the van, followed by an instantaneous explosion.
Chinese targets have regularly been attacked by terror groups in Balochistan, where Beijing is involved in huge infrastructure projects as part of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The Chinese fatalities included the director of the Chinese-built Confucius Institute, which offers Chinese language graduate classes, and two teachers.
