At least 20 Chinese nationals killed in Pak since 2021 says anti-terrorism body

Islamabad, Dec 10 (PTI) Pakistan’s leading anti-terrorism body on Tuesday said that at least 20 Chinese citizens had been killed and 34 injured in various terrorist attacks in the country since 2021.
     The National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA), which works at the federal level on plans to eradicate the threat of militancy from the country, shared the data with the National Assembly Standing Committee on Planning, Development and Special Initiatives.
     According to NACTA Director Colonel Usman, terrorists have carried out 14 attacks since 2021 against the Chinese nationals working in Pakistan on various projects.
     “Twenty Chinese nationals were killed and 34 injured in these targeted attacks,” he said, adding that at least eight Pakistanis were also killed and another 25 injured in such attacks.
     The official also informed the parliamentary panel that about 20,000 Chinese nationals were in Pakistan, including those working on various projects linked with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a multi-billion dollar programme launched in 2014.
     The report comes as the Chinese embassy for the first time publicly aired concerns about the security of its people after two Chinese engineers were killed in an attack in October near the Karachi airport.
     The attack was claimed by the banned Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), which is a group of Baloch militants who are against the development projects by China in the Balochistan province.
     The repeated attacks angered China and there were reports that it was pushing the Pakistani government to begin formal negotiations for a joint security management system.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)