At least four people, including three Chinese citizens, were killed and several others injured in a suspected suicide attack on a vehicle on the premises of Karachi University in Pakistan on Tuesday. The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), a militant group which operates mainly in Balochistan province, claimed responsibility for the explosion. The BLA said the attack was carried out by a woman suicide bomber.
A blast outside a Chinese language institute at the University of Karachi wounded four people on Tuesday, provincial information minister Sharjeel Memon told Geo television channel. The police are trying to find out whether it was a suicide attack, Geo News added.
Geo television also broadcast CCTV footage of the incident claiming a woman detonated the bomb near the car. Karachi Police chief Ghulam Nabi Memon said the initial investigation suggests a suicide bomber was behind the attack. He said the footage from the site showed a person dressed in the woman burqa head-to-toe covering walking up to the van, followed by an instantaneous explosion.
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The BLA's statement that followed the attack identified the bomber as Shari Baloch or Bramsh, saying she was the group's first female bomber. The attack marks “a new chapter in the history of Baloch resistance,” the statement said.
{{/usCountry}}The BLA's statement that followed the attack identified the bomber as Shari Baloch or Bramsh, saying she was the group's first female bomber. The attack marks “a new chapter in the history of Baloch resistance,” the statement said.
{{/usCountry}}This is the first major attack on Chinese nationals in Pakistan since the bombing of a bus at Dasu in the northwest in July 2021 that killed nine Chinese nationals. However, that attack wasn't claimed by the Baloch militants. The Pakistani Taliban — also known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan — had claimed responsibility for the attack. Four Pakistanis had also died in that attack.