In a bomb at Pakistan’s Karachi University on Tuesday, at least four people were killed and numerous more were injured, including three Chinese language instructors and a Pakistani national.
The separatist group, the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), a militant organisation based in Afghanistan that mostly operates in Balochistan province, claimed responsibility for the attack in an email to Reuters, claiming that a woman suicide bomber carried out the blast in a van inside the institution’s premises in Pakistan’s financial capital Karachi.
According to Reuters, the three Chinese instructors, two of whom were women, were among passengers on a minibus returning to the university after the lunch break when they were murdered in the suspected suicide bombing.
The minibus driver was also murdered when the device burst at the gate to the Confucius Institute, according to Karachi police.
The Chinese nationals killed in the bomb, according to Karachi Police Chief Ghulam Nabi Memon, were Chinese professors at the university’s Confucius Institute.
“Based on the information we have, the female bomber was most likely a university student,” Memon told local Geo News TV.
Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan’s new Prime Minister, called the bomb near Karachi University “a despicable act of terrorism.”
Imran Khan, Pakistan’s former prime minister, denounced the terrorist assault at Karachi University on Twitter.
“We strongly condemn the terrorist attack on Karachi University’s Chinese professors. This is another another effort aimed at undermining the strategic relationship between Pakistan and China. “We must assure the defeat of our adversaries’ foreign-backed agenda,” Khan stated.
This is the second assault against Chinese citizens in Pakistan after a suicide bomber killed 13 people on a passenger bus in northern Pakistan last year, including nine Chinese.
Karachi University has stated that it would be closed tomorrow, April 27, due to the suicide bombing. According to the institution, there will be no academic activity tomorrow, and public transactions will be halted for one day.
Shari Baloch, the group’s first female suicide bomber, was named by BLA as the suspected attacker. Baloch, also known as “Bramsh,” was a mother of two children with academic degrees, including an MSc, according to media sources.
According to reports, the Baloch separatists target gas installations, security personnel, as well as Chinese projects and workers.