Relationship between Pakistan and China based on generations-long loyalty: FM Bilawal Bhutto

Islamabad: New Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that the relationship between Pakistan and China was based on generations-long loyalty.

The FM visited the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad soon after taking oath and met with the Chinese diplomats.

Speaking on the occasion, the Foreign Minister expressed grief over loss of precious human lives during terrorist attack on Chinese nationals in Karachi on Tuesday that left three Chinese nationals and a Pakistani citizen dead.

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar also accompanied Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

The GM contended that the terrorists’ nefarious designs cannot sabotage Pakistan-China friendship. He also recorded his impressions in the guest’s book at the Chinese Embassy.

Earlier, on Tuesday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif visited the Chinese embassy here and conveyed his condolence over the death of Chinese nationals in a blast that took place in Karachi earlier in the afternoon.

Investigator said on Wednesday that the suicide bomber who targeted Chinese teachers inside Karachi University was a woman and the Majeed Brigade of the banned Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the attack.

The organization is active in the Baloch areas of Balochistan and most of its operations are carried out under a guerrilla strategy. They secretly hit targets and escape.

However, since 2018, the BLA has adopted the same method used by extremist organizations – launching attacks through suicide bombings. In 2018, for the first time, the BLA targeted Chinese nationals in a suicide attack.

The suicide car bomb attack on the bus of Chinese engineers working on the Sandak project in the Dalbandin area of Chaghi was carried out by the son of the then BLA chief Aslam Achoo. Since then, the organization has carried out eight such attacks in Karachi, Gwadar, Noshki and Panjgur.

However, this is the first case where a Baloch woman suicide bomber struck a van. The banned Baloch Liberation Army has released a photo of the woman, identified as Shari Baloch alias Barmash. In another photo before the attack, Shari Baloch is seen sitting with her children.

On Twitter, Shari Baloch has described in her profile her educational qualification M.Phil in Education and Masters in Zoology. Investogators were told that Shari Baloch belonged to a highly educated and financially prosperous family in the Kech area of Balochistan.

Many members of his family have held or have held high government positions and Shari was the mother of two young children, including a daughter and a son. Her husband is a dentist while her father is a director in a government agency. His uncle is a retired professor and Balochi writer who has also written several books.

Shari Baloch, 30, had been teaching as a science teacher in a government school in Turbat. She moved to Karachi a few months ago. She did B.Ed in 2014, M.Ed in 2018 and then Masters’s in Zoology and then did M.Phil from Allama Iqbal Open University Turbat. On Wednesday, law enforcers rounded up the husband of the Karachi University suicide bomber, Habitan Bashir Baloch.

This is the first arrest carried out by security officials as they have expanded. Habitan Bashir Baloch is being interrogated.

The Chinese ambassador to Pakistan has been apprised regarding the arrest of the suicide bomber’s husband.