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Blast kills two Chinese nationals near Pakistan’s Karachi airport
Two Chinese nationals have been killed and at least 10 people injured in a suspected suicide attack near Karachi airport in Pakistan.
A third body, not yet officially identified, is thought to be that of the attacker, the BBC understands.
The Chinese embassy in Pakistan said the explosion on Sunday night was a “terrorist attack” targeting a convoy of Chinese engineers working on a power project in Sindh province.
The separatist Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), which has in recent years carried out attacks on Chinese nationals involved in development projects in Pakistan, has said it carried out the attack.
In a statement released on Monday, the militant group said it had “targeted a high-level convoy of Chinese engineers and investors” arriving from Karachi airport. A later statement from the group described it as a suicide attack, and named the perpetrator as Shah Fahad, part of a BLA suicide squad called Majeed Brigade.
The attack was carried out using a “vehicle-borne improvised explosive device”, Reuters news agency quoted the BLA as saying.
The explosion happened around 23:00 local time (17:00 GMT) on Sunday.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called the attack a “heinous act” and offered his condolences to the Chinese people. “Pakistan stands committed to safeguarding our Chinese friends,” he wrote on X.
The country’s foreign ministry said it is “in close contact” with Chinese authorities and will “bring to justice those responsible for this cowardly attack”. “This act of terrorism is an attack not only on Pakistan, but also on the enduring friendship between Pakistan and China,” the ministry said. “This barbaric act will not go unpunished,” it added.
The Chinese embassy said that the engineers were part of the Chinese-funded enterprise Port Qasim Power Generation Co Ltd, which aims to build two coal power plants at Port Qasim, near Karachi.
Thousands of Chinese workers are in Pakistan, many of them involved in creating an economic corridor between the two countries as part of Beijing’s multibillion dollar Belt and Road Initiative.
The Port Qasim plant is part of the corridor, along with a number of infrastructure and energy projects in Pakistan’s Balochistan province, which has a rich supply of natural resources, including gas and minerals.
The BLA along with other ethnic Baloch groups has fought a long-running insurgency for a separate homeland.
It has regularly targeted Chinese nationals in the region, claiming ethnic Baloch residents were not receiving their share of wealth from foreign investment in the province and natural resources extracted there.
The Chinese embassy on Monday reminded its citizens and Chinese enterprises in Pakistan to be vigilant and to “do their best to take safety precautions”. The embassy added that it hoped Pakistan would thoroughly investigate the attack and “severely punish the murderer”.
The blast was reportedly heard in various areas around the city, with footage from local media showing thick smoke and cars set alight.
Pictures online show security officials and firefighters investigating the explosion site, with several vehicles charred by the blast.
A police surgeon, Dr Summaiya told Dawn news: “Ten injured persons, including one in critical condition, have been brought the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical College [JPMC].”
She added the injured included a police constable and a woman.
A statement posted on X from Sindh’s Interior Minister’s office said that a “tanker truck” had exploded on Airport Road. Roads leading to Jinnah International Airport were sealed off following the attack, but the airport is functioning as usual on Monday.
There has also been heightened security in Pakistan as it prepares to host the leaders summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
There have been multiple attacks on Chinese nationals in Pakistan in recent years. The BLA has claimed responsibility for several of them, including an attack in March on a Pakistani naval airbase near Gwadar port, another main feature of the China-Pakistan economic corridor.
In April 2022, the group killed three Chinese tutors and a Pakistani driver in a suicide bombing near Karachchi University’s Confucius Institute.
In November 2018, gunmen killed at least four people in an attack on the Chinese Consulate in Karachi.
[BBC]
The Paddy Marketing Board has approximately 115,000 metric tonnes of paddy stocks purchased from farmers, which are currently stored in the Board’s warehouses, and it has been planned to retain a sufficient buffer stock from these reserves and sell the remaining quantity in order to provide the necessary storage space and financial resources for the purchase of paddy from farmers during the upcoming Yala season.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation to sell the aforementioned paddy stocks
following a formal tender procedure.
Latest News
Ms. M.K.D.N. Madampe, appointed as Director General of the Department of Management Services
The Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the President in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, to appoint Ms. M.K.D.N. Madampe, an officer of the Sri Lanka Administrative Service in the Special Grade who is currently serving as an Additional Director General of the Department of Management Services, to the post of Director General of the Department of Management Services with immediate effect.
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Cabinet approval for Implementation of a Project for the Joint Exchange of Genetic Resources between Sri Lanka and Vietnam and the Development of High-Yielding and Salinity-resilient Rice Varieties.
With the objective of improving the productivity of paddy cultivation, a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the agricultural sector was entered into on 2025-05-05 between the Department of Agriculture of Sri Lanka and the Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
Under the afore Memorandum of Understanding, both parties have agreed to implement a project titled “Joint Exchange of Genetic Resources and Development of High-Yielding and Salinity-resilient Rice Varieties through Hybridization between Sri Lanka and Vietnam.”
The activities proposed to be carried out under the said project include the exchange of germplasm materials of rice varieties between the two countries, the conduct of joint breeding and hybridization programmes, the evaluation and selection of advanced breeding lines under local conditions, the establishment of field trials, the training of research officers, and the exchange of knowledge.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation for the implementation of the proposed project
Cabinet approves sale of Paddy stocks held by the Paddy Marketing Board
Amendment to the Promotion of Export Agriculture Act, No. 46 of 1992 to be gazatted
Ms. M.K.D.N. Madampe, appointed as Director General of the Department of Management Services
Cabinet approves collaboration agreement between Sri Lanka and Brazil for the implementation of the “Sugarcane Project in Sri Lanka”
Cabinet approval for Implementation of a Project for the Joint Exchange of Genetic Resources between Sri Lanka and Vietnam and the Development of High-Yielding and Salinity-resilient Rice Varieties.
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