Karachi police arrest Chinese consulate attack suspects

Karachi: Karachi police chief Amir Sheikh on Friday said the law enforcement agency had apprehended a number of suspects for their involvement in the November 23 attack on Chinese Consulate in Karachi.  Talking to journalists, he said that investigation revealed that the attack was sponsored by   international actors. He said that the three terrorists who stormed the embassy stayed in a house in the city’s Baldia Town area along with their four facilitators, all of whom have been arrested. “Arms and ammunition were brought through train and kept in the same house in Baldia Town where the terrorists stayed with their facilitators and came from on the day of the attack,” Amir Sheikh said. The police officer said that the railway department and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) too should look into the matter as apart from transferring arms through railways , the terrorists and their facilitators held identity cards bearing different names and were able to get a house in Baldia Town on rent through the fake identity.  “This a cause for concern as one of them held four identity cards bearing different names,” he held. About the attack’s planning and planners, the Karachi police chief said that the planning was done in Afghanistan under the then Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) leader Aslam alias Acchu along with four other men, all of whom were his relatives. “The attack was India-sponsored,” announced Ameer Sheikh, adding that the terrorist attack was aimed at damaging the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the friendly relations between the two countries. About the attack’s mastermind Aslam Acchu’s reported death, the police officer maintained that the news is not confirmed as Aslam Acchu had himself spread such news in past. “He may have been alive and in hiding. We cannot say anything decisively until we see his dead body or some concrete evidence,” he said. At least three suicide attackers tried to storm the Chinese consulate in the Karachi on November 23, but were killed before they could get into the building.