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
Pakistan expresses solidarity with Canada as school shooting claims 9 lives
- At least 9 dead, 27 wounded in shooting incident at secondary school, residence in British Columbia on Tuesday
- Officials say the shooter was found dead with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound after the incident
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday expressed solidarity with Canada as a high school shooting incident in a British Columbia town left at least nine dead, more than 20 others injured.
Six people were found at the Tumbler Ridge Secondary School while a seventh died on the way to the hospital, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said in a statement on Tuesday. Two other people were found dead at a home that police believe is connected to the shooting at the school. A total of 27 people were wounded in the attack.
In an initial emergency alert, police described the suspect as a “female in a dress with brown hair,” with officials saying she was found dead with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
“Saddened by the tragic shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia,” Sharif wrote on social media platform X.
He conveyed his condolences to the families of the victims, wishing a swift recovery to those injured in the attack.
“Pakistan stands in solidarity with the people and Government of Canada in this difficult time,” he added.
Canadian police have not yet released any information about the age of the shooter or the victims.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was “devastated” by the violence, announcing he had suspended plans to travel to the Munich Security Conference on Wednesday.
While mass shootings are rare in Canada, last April, a vehicle attack that targeted a Filipino cultural festival in Vancouver killed 11 people.
British Columbia Premier David Eby called the latest violence “unimaginable.”
Nina Krieger, British Columbia’s minister of public safety, described it as one of the “worst mass shootings” in Canada’s history.
