The Pakistani Taliban attacked the Chinese ambassador to Balochistan. ## पाकिस्तानी तालिबान ने बलूचिस्तान में चीनी राजदूत पर हमला किया। ##
WHAT HAS HAPPENED?
A bomb explosion at a luxury hotel in the Pakistani city of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, has killed five people and wounded 12. The Pakistani Taliban said it was behind the blast in the car park of the Serena Hotel, to target police officers and other officials. A Taliban spokesman described it as an attack by a suicide bomber using a car filled with explosives. Initial reports had suggested the target was China's ambassador.
"At least five people have been killed and 12 others were injured," Pakistan's interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said, deseribing it as "an act of terrorism".
"A Chinese delegation of around four people led by the ambassador was lodging in the hotel. "The ambassador Nong Rong was out for a meeting when the explosion took place," he added.
On Thursday, Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan said he was "deeply saddened by the loss of innocent lives in the condemnable and cowardly terrorist attack in Quetta". "Our nation has made great sacrifices in defeating terrorism and we will not to allow this scourge to rise again," he tweeted.
RISING ATTACK
In recent months the group, and other militant organisations, have stepped up attacks in tribal areas near the border
with Afghanistan. The Pakistani Taliban - or Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP)- has been carrying out attacks across the country for years, but the group's influence and activities dramatically declined following a military offensive in 2014.
BUT WHY THIS ATTACK?
Balochistan is poor despite its natural resources-- a source of great anger to residents who complain they do not receive a fair share of the gas and mineral wealth. Resentment has been fuelled by billions of dollars of Chinese money flowing into the region through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) .
A key part of China's Belt and Road Initiative -- which locals say gave them little benefit as most new jobs went to outsiders.
Balochistan province, near the Afghan border, is home to several armed groups, including separatists. Separatists in the region want independence from the rest of Pakistan and accuse the government and
China of exploiting Balochistan.
In 2019 gunmen stormed a luxury hotel overlooking flagship CPEC project -- the deep-water seaport in Gwadar that gives China strategic access to the Arabian Sea killing at least eight people. And in June, Baloch insurgents targeted the Pakistan Stock Exchange, which is partly owned by Chinese companies .All the attacks were claimed by the Balochistan Liberation Army.
WHO ARE THE PAKISTANI TALIBAN?
With its roots in the Afghan Taliban, the TTP movement came to the fore in 2007 by unleashing a wave of violence.
Its leaders have traditionally been based in Pakistan's tribal areas, but it is really a loose affiliation of militant groups. The group has killed hundreds of Pakistanis in suicide bombings and other attacks over the years, and has also co-ordinated assaults on numerous security targets.
What was arguably one of the most internationally criticised of all Pakistani Taliban attacks took place in October 2012, when schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai was attacked on her way home in the town of Mingora. At least three key figures of the Pakistani Taliban were killed the following year in US drone strikes, including the group's leader Hakimullah Mehsud.
Pakistan stepped up its own operations against insurgents after Taliban militants killed 132 children at a school in Peshawar in 2014. The army later declared the entire border region with Afghanistan "militant-free", but militant activity resumed there in 2018, coinciding with the rise of a non-violent nationalist movement.
Comments