Pakistan: Chinese tutors killed in Karachi university bombing

29.04.2022

Fatima Orujova

Pakistan and Human Rights Researcher

  On April 27, 2022, three Chinese language teachers and their Pakistani driver died in a suicide bombing in the city of Karachi, according to local police (BBC News, 2022). The attack occured in a minibus near Confucius Institute, the University of Karachi and resulted in the deaths of four people (BBC News, 2022). The director of the Institute is among the people that died as a result of the attack (BBC News, 2022).

  The suicide bomber was identified to be 30-year-old Shaari Baloch, a married mother of an eight-year-old girl and four-year-old boy and a student at the university (Al Jazeera, 2022). She was the member of the separatist Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) that is against growing Chinese presence, including investments, in the province of Balochistan - according to the movement, these investments do not benefit the province (BBC News, 2022). 

   It has also been found that this is not the first time that Baloch separatists have targeted Chinese nationals in the country (BBC News, 2022). Pakistani authorities have also denounced the attack and have called it "a cowardly terrorist attack" (BBC News, 2022). 

Further reading and sources

Al Jazeera. (2022, April 27). Pakistan rebel group warns China of harsher attacks. Al Jazeera. Retrieved April 27, 2022 from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/27/pakistan-separatist-group-warns-china-of-more-deadly-attacks 

BBC News. (2022, April 27). Pakistan attack: Chinese tutors killed in Karachi university bombing. BBC News. Retrieved April 27, 2022 from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-61229589