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Attack on Chinese consulate 'not surprising': Imran Khan

Reuters
Islamabad, PakistanUpdated: Nov 23, 2018, 10:04 PM IST
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Photograph:(Reuters)

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Three suicide attackers stormed the consulate amid a series of gunshots and an explosion, but were killed before they could get into the building in a car packed with explosives, police said.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said the attack at a Chinese consulate in Karachi on Friday (November 23) was "not surprising".

Three suicide attackers stormed the consulate amid a series of gunshots and an explosion, but were killed before they could get into the building in a car packed with explosives, police said.

At least two police officers were killed in the attack, which was claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), a separatist insurgent group that opposes Chinese projects in the resource-rich southwestern province of Baluchistan. All Chinese staff at the consulate were safe, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and China's Foreign Ministry said.

The assault was the most prominent attack in Pakistan against China, a neighbour and close ally which is pouring billions of dollars into Pakistan as part of its Belt and Road initiative. It was also the highest-profile operation in years by the BLA, which mostly wages a low-level insurgency in Baluchistan. The group also calls itself the Balochistan Liberation Army.