ISLAMABAD: In the terrorist attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi, Prime Minister Imran Khan sees a conspiracy to destabilise the country and has pledged a thorough probe into the incident to bring its perpetrators to justice.

“The terrorists are being fed from outside to destabilise the country. We will go after all of them,” he said in his opening remarks at a meeting of the federal cabinet on Friday.

According to a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office, Mr Khan said: “The incident is part of conspiracy against Pak and China economic and strategic cooperation.” He hoped that such incidents would fail to undermine the very strong relationship between the two countries.

Chinese FM says such assaults cannot affect brotherhood

The prime minister praised the “swift and timely” action of the security personnel, which helped avert a major tragedy. “It could have been much worse,” he said. Mr Khan ordered an investigation into the attack to expose the elements behind it.

During the meeting he also touched upon the Orakzai bomb attack in which 34 people were killed. The tragedy was, however, overshadowed by the attack on the consulate.

The Orakzai incident was not a suicide attack, as an explosion was carried out by a planted device, the premier said while explaining the nature of the attack.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in a phone conversation with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi assured him that the government would carry out a full investigation into the attack and provide best possible security to the Chinese living in Pakistan.

Mr Qureshi had called Mr Wang to inform him about the details of the consulate attack, in which timely action by security guards and law enforcement agencies limited the casualties and damage. Two security personnel lost their lives, whereas the consulate’s Chinese staff remained unharmed. The minister pledged that “a thorough investigation will be carried out to apprehend the perpetrators, their financiers, planners and facilitators.”

Mr Qureshi reiterated Pakistan government’s commitment to ensuring security of all Chinese nationals living in Pakistan.

The attack on the consulate is the second assault on the Chinese nationals or installations in Pakistan by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), a banned separatist group, within three months.

The BLA had in August targeted a bus carrying Chinese engineers in Dalbandin. Five people, including three Chinese nationals, were wounded in that attack.

In February, a Chinese shipping company executive was shot dead in Karachi.

The BLA has been opposing the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a multi-billion-dollar joint infrastructure and communications venture of the two neighbouring countries. The Dalbandin attack had marked a change in BLA’s tactics against the Chinese as it was the first suicide attack on their engineers. “Pakistan is fully committed to taking all necessary measures to provide robust security to all Chinese nationals in Pakistan. The two countries will continue to cooperate to thwart the designs of hostile forces against their time-tested friendship,” Mr Qureshi said.

According to the Foreign Office, Mr Wang said the terrorist attack was an attempt to adversely affect Pakistan-China relations and to harm the CPEC. “Pakistan-China brotherhood is clad in iron and such cowardly attacks cannot affect it,” he stressed.

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2018