Gunman in Pakistan Fires on Car Carrying Chinese Engineers

 By Saeed Shah and Waqar Gillani

The attack is the latest on China’s citizens in the country, which is a close ally of Beijing.

A gunman opened fire on a car carrying two engineers in the southern port city of Karachi, the latest attack on Chinese nationals in close ally Pakistan.

One of the engineers was hit four times, mostly in the arm, police said, but was in stable condition. The other engineer and a Pakistani driver were uninjured in the attack.Chinese nationals have been the victims of multiple recent attacks in Pakistan. Earlier this month, a bombing killed nine Chinese construction workers in a bus being taken to the site of a dam being built in northern Pakistan. That was the deadliest attack on Chinese nationals in Pakistan in recent years.Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a regular press briefing Wednesday that China was closely monitoring the incident, which it described as an isolated event, but said that it was still under investigation. “We have full confidence in Pakistan’s ability to protect Chinese citizens and property in Pakistan,” he said.

The engineers targeted Wednesday had come to Pakistan earlier this month to fit Chinese equipment at a Pakistani-owned plastic manufacturer in Karachi. They were being taken to work in the morning, by a driver and car provided by the factory, when a motorcycle pulled up alongside, police said. One of the people on the motorcycle opened fire at the back of the car.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the shooting.

“This shooting will cause problems with the Chinese who will be livid at another incident so soon after the other attack,” said Raffaello Pantucci, senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, located in Singapore. “Pakistan may have to now revisit security for all Chinese in Pakistan, which is a big job.”

Chinese interests in Pakistan have been targeted mostly by separatists from the western province of Balochistan, who accuse Beijing of exploiting the resources of their region. It remains unclear whether the other main set of insurgents in Pakistan, jihadists such as the Pakistani Taliban, are also going after the Chinese targets.

According to Islamabad, both Baloch separatists and Pakistani Taliban have bases across the border in Afghanistan, which makes their presence there also a source of worry for Beijing.

China was so concerned after the attack on the workers on the dam this month that it dispatched its own investigators to Pakistan, which was followed by a visit of Pakistan’s foreign minister and intelligence chief to Beijing. No group claimed responsibility for the explosion.

In April, there was a bombing in the parking lot of a hotel where the Chinese ambassador was staying in the Western city of Quetta. He was unhurt, and it is unclear whether the ambassador was the target. The group claiming responsibility, the Pakistani Taliban, said they had targeted the security guards outside the hotel.

Targets of other attacks in recent years include the Chinese consulate in Karachi, the partly Chinese-owned stock exchange in Karachi and a hotel in the Chinese-run port of Gwadar.China and Pakistan are close allies. Beijing is working on a multibillion-dollar building spree in Pakistan, a flagship for its global Belt and Road Initiative to spread Chinese influence through infrastructure projects. Thousands of Pakistani army, paramilitary personnel and police are deployed to guard the construction sites and Chinese citizens involved in the projects.

There are also Chinese construction projects and commercial activities that are separate from the Belt and Road, which often have much thinner security provided. The Chinese workers targeted in the bombing earlier this month and in the Wednesday shooting weren’t working on Belt and Road projects.

The Chinese engineers targeted in the shooting Wednesday hadn’t been provided with any security, and police said they were previously unaware of their presence in the city.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/gunman-in-pakistan-fires-on-car-carrying-chinese-engineers-11627477869