Beijing urges Pakistan to stop terror attacks on Chinese nationals

Premier Li Keqiang tells Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to bring to justice those responsible for a deadly attack on teachers at a Confucius Institute last month

Sharif says security measures will be stepped up for Chinese nationals in the wake of the attack

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The attack killed three Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 10:12pm, 16 May 2022Updated: 11:42pm, 16 May 2022

Pakistan has been urged to “ensure” further terrorist attacks against Chinese nationals do not happen after last month’s suicide bombing in Karachi.

In a telephone call with Pakistan’s new Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Premier Li Keqiang said China had been shocked and outraged by the attack.

Three Chinese teachers from a Confucius Institute and their local driver were killed in the attack by a female suicide bomber at a university campus in the southern city of Karachi on April 26. The Baloch Liberation Army, a separatist militant group in nearby Balochistan province, claimed responsibility for the attack.

“I hope that the Pakistani side will bring the perpetrators to justice as soon as possible … and comprehensively strengthen security measures for Chinese institutions and personnel in Pakistan to ensure that similar tragedies will not be repeated,” Li said, according to state news agency Xinhua.

Shehbaz said his government would strengthen security measures for all Chinese institutions and personnel in Pakistan to ensure that similar incidents will not be repeated, and stressed that Pakistan strongly condemns terrorism, values the lives of Chinese personnel in Pakistan and “regards the Chinese that was killed and injured as our own compatriots without distinction”.