Countering Terrorism

KTerrorist attacks targeting Chinese citizens have been taking place since 2004. The attacks have intensified, especially after the signing of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) agreement by Pakistan and China in 2014 and the withdrawal of the US/NATO forces from Afghanistan in 2018.

The TTP, which emerged in North Waziristan as a reaction to Pakistan’s policy of supporting the US/NATO’s War on Terror in Afghanistan, has been operating against Pakistan. In June 2014, it fled to Afghanistan to escape from the Zarb-e-Azb operation launched by the Pakistan Army in North Waziristan and has been hiding there till the withdrawal of NATO forces in 2018. And, now, it is pretty active as the Taliban government in Afghanistan has given them refuge.

As per the Pakistani think tanks and analysts, since 2018, the BLA and the TPP have committed the following terrorist acts against the Chinese workers in Pakistan. Three gunmen of BLA attacked the Chinese consulate in Clifton, Karachi, on 23 November 2018, and two police guards were killed in the attack. On 21 April 2021, the Pakistani Taliban carried out a suicide bombing attack in Quetta, where five Chinese citizens were killed.

On 14 July 2021, a vehicle carrying explosives collided with a bus carrying Chinese engineers to a construction site in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where nine Chinese workers were killed and two Pakistani soldiers were martyred. The then Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that the Pakistani Taliban attacked with backing from Afghanistan and India.

A suicide bombing targeting a vehicle carrying Chinese nationals in Gwadar was carried out by the BLA on August 20, 2021. Two children were killed. The BLA carried out a suicide bombing at the Confucius Institute of the University of Karachi on April 26, 2022. Three Chinese instructors were dead, and their Pakistani driver was martyred. In the latest attack on March 26, 2024, five Chinese nationals were killed, and one Pakistani was martyred in a suicide bomb blast near the vehicle carrying the Chinese in Besham in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

While accepting responsibility for terrorist attacks, the TTP says it has done so in support of China’s ETIM (East Turkistan Islamic Movement) in reaction to the Chinese suppression of the Uighur Muslims in its Xinjiang region, who are fighting for their independence from China to establish the East Turkistan state. The TTP also targets Chinese citizens to discourage China from supporting Pakistan in its war against terrorism. Lately, the TTP has started cooperating with the BLA to target Chinese citizens.

The BLA opposes the Chinese government’s large-scale investments in the Gwadar deep water port projects in Balochistan as part of the CPEC project, saying that these projects would turn the local Baloch community into a minority in its province. Therefore, they target the Chinese working in Pakistan to discourage them from continuing with their CPEC-related/other projects in Balochistan.

Since the BLA and the TTP can hide in Iran and have refuge in Afghanistan, respectively, they attack Chinese citizens as they can escape to these countries by carrying out terrorist attacks in Pakistan. Since India and some other countries have opposed the CPEC, India, in coordination with other hostile countries’ intelligence, is also facilitating/financing the terrorist acts of TTP and BLA by using its consulates in Iran and Afghanistan.