Chinese injured in Karachi firing incident
KARACHI: A Chinese national was shot at and wounded in an atack in Pakistan’s largest city Karachi on Wednesday, police said, two weeks ater nine Chinese workers were killed when an explosion sent their bus over a ravine in the north of the country.
Wednesday’s victim and another Chinese national were being driven to Karachi’s industrial area when they were atacked, police deputy inspector general Javed Akbar Riaz said.
“Two men wearing face masks riding a motorcycle carried out the shooting,” Riaz told reporters, adding that the men were travelling without a police escort.
The motive behind the atack was not immediately clear, and senior officer Javed Akbar said police were still investigating.
Rescue worker Ahmad Shah said both foreigners were Chinese and one of them was wounded.
Karachi is the capital of Pakistan’s southern Sindh province, home to several Chinese-funded construction projects.
No one claimed responsibility for the atack. Speaking in Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian described the incident as “an isolated case.”
“We have full confidence in the Pakistan side’s protection of Chinese citizens and property in Pakistan,” he told a regular news briefing.
China is a close ally and major investor in Pakistan, and various militants opposed to the Pakistani government have in the past atacked Chinese projects and citizens.
As many as 13 people, including nine Chinese nationals working on a dam project, were killed when their bus was hit by an explosion in Kohistan, northwest Pakistan, on July 14.
Pakistan initially blamed a mechanical failure but later said traces of explosives had been found and terrorism could not be ruled out.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang described it as a “terrorist atack” and urged his Pakistani counterpart to hold the culprits accountable.
Chinese investigators accompanied by Pakistani counterparts visited the site of the bus explosion on July 17.
The Chinese workers killed on the bus were employed at the Dasu hydroelectric project, part of the China-pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a $65 billion investment plan aiming to link western China to the southern Pakistani port of Gwadar.
The bus atack took place in Kohistan, a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that borders restive Afghanistan.