DELHI: Friday’s attack of the Chinese consulate in Karachi sparked front-page coverage in most of India’s national dailies.
The country’s highest-circulating English language newspaper, Times of India, carried the headline: “Baloch suicide squad kills four at Chinese consulate in Karachi.”
It reported that a “Baloch separatist group stormed the Chinese consulate…killing four people before they were shot dead.”
The daily said the Baloch Liberation Army, an insurgent group that has been fighting the Pakistani state for over a decade, considers the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor an “illegal occupation of resources rich Balochistan.”
The Indian Express devoted five columns to the attack, highlighting India’s condemnation of it and the security risks for China.
“With infrastructure projects worth $60 billion under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Chinese interests in Pakistan are possibly at an all-time high.”
“New Delhi’s swift condemnation of the attack is significant, given Pakistani allegations of India support to the Baloch insurgency, as well as diplomatic sensitivity ar0und India’s refusal to be the part of the BRI.”
Although Chinese interests had been previously targeted in Pakistan, the consulate raid was “the most significant attack of its kind in years.”
The Hindustan Times, the second-highest circulating English daily, gave prominent coverage to the attack. It also said the Pakistani government “might try to pin this attack on the BLA to justify a military operation against Baloch militants.”
The English daily, DNA, said the attack could mar China-Pakistan ties.
“The incident is the second major attack this year on Chinese officials in Karachi, a megacity in a country that is one of the key partners in China’s Belt and Road Initiative.”
Chinese consulate attack sparks widespread Indian media reports
Chinese consulate attack sparks widespread Indian media reports
- India quick to condemn the attack
- China investing billions in Pakistan
Gunmen kill 3 Revolutionary Guards in Iranian province bordering Pakistan
- Iranian state media says attackers ambushed patrol in Sistan and Baluchistan province before fleeing
- Border region with Pakistan and Afghanistan has long seen militant and smuggling-related violence
TEHRAN: Gunmen killed three members of the Revolutionary Guard in Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan near the Pakistan border, state media reported.
The Guard members were ambushed while patrolling near the city of Lar in a mountainous area about 1,125 kilometers (700 miles) southeast of the capital Tehran, the official IRNA news agency reported.
IRNA did not report whether any Guard members were injured in the attack.
The Revolutionary Guard is pursing the attackers it calls “terrorists,” but they remain at large. No group has taken responsibility for the attack, IRNA reported.
The province bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan, one of the least developed in Iran, has been the site of occasional deadly clashes involving militant groups, armed drug smugglers and Iranian security forces.
In August, Iran’s security forces killed 13 militants in three separate operations in the province a week after the group killed five policemen who were on patrol.
