8 DEAD IN PAK STOCK EXCHANGE ATTACK
External affairs ministry rejects as absurd the comments by Pakistani minister that India was behind attack
The Pakistan Stock Exchange building is reflected in the bullet-riddled window of the security check post after the attack in Karachi on Monday.
ISLAMABAD: Terrorists attacked Pakistan’s main stock exchange in Karachi on Monday, leaving eight people dead, including the four attackers.
The gunmen, believed to be from the outlawed Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), tried to enter the building of Pakistan Stock Exchange and take hostages, but the attempt was foiled.
Pakistan blamed India for the attack, leading to a strong rebuttal from the external affairs ministry. “India rejects absurd comments of Pakistan foreign minister on terrorist attack in Karachi. Pakistan cannot shift blame on India for its domestic problems. Unlike Pakistan, India has no hesitation in condemning terrorism anywhere in world, including in Karachi,” the ministry said.
Earlier, Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said in a statement the attack suggested that India was involved. He alleged that New Delhi had activated its “sleeper cells” in the country. The circumstances of today’s attack, if examined, “will lead to the same sleeper cells”, Qureshi claimed. India cannot tolerate peace in Pakistan,” the minister said, also alleging that India was involved in the attack on Pakistani troops as well.
He said India was being “exposed” before the world, including through its confrontation with China in Ladakh and its “oppression of people in Indianoccupied Kashmir.”
Qureshi said Pakistani agencies are “fully alert” to all threats. “We will foil all Indian strategies [and] further expose it in front of the world,” he added.
Science and technology minister Fawad Chaudhry tweeted, “Foreign hands and planning of a network similar to Kulbhushan
Jadhav’s are involved in this attack.”
Police in Pakistan claimed that the gunmen wanted to enter the stock exchange on Monday morning and hold members hostage. However, they were prevented from doing so by the security guards and police personnel posted outside the building.
Director general of the paramilitary Rangers force, Omer Ahmed Bukhari, told a press conference that the terrorists were eliminated within eight minutes. He told reporters that a combined operation by security agencies started at 10:02 am and the attackers were killed by 10:10am.
Security forces later carried out a clearance operation and normalcy was restored to the area within 30-35 minutes, he said.
The Pakistan Stock Exchange board Chairman Sulaiman S Mehdi said “trading didn’t close even for a minute”.