KARACHI: Police foiled an attempted attack on a Chinese company in Pakistan’s southern Karachi port city on Wednesday, confirmed officials, killing a militant who was wearing a suicide vest.

According to a police report, the two-armed militants tried to enter Hong Kong Rivers and Pak China Boatyard in the city’s Malir district, where around 31 Chinese nationals were present.

However, a group of four police personnel deployed for security purposes swiftly responded and thwarted the attack.

“Police deployed at Dawood Jetty opened fire and killed one terrorist,” said Senior Superintendent of Police Hassan Niazi. The incident occurred at about 9am in the morning.

The dead militant was wearing a suicide vest, while a police constable, Akram Ali, was shot in the leg and injured.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Chinese nationals have been targeted by Baloch and Sindhi separatists and Pakistani Taliban in the past.

In April last year, Shari Baloch, the first female suicide bomber of the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), killed four Chinese teachers at the Karachi University’s Confucius Institute.

This was the first major attack on Chinese nationals in Pakistan since 2021 when a suicide bomber blew up a passenger bus, killing 13 people, including nine Chinese workers, employed at the Dasu Hydropower Project in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

In April 2021, an explosion at a five-star hotel in Quetta, targeting the Chinese ambassador, killed four people and injured 12 others. Balochistan Home Minister Zia Ullah Langau said the Chinese envoy was not present at the hotel at the time of the explosion which was claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.

On 23 November 2018, militants associated with the BLA attacked the Chinese consulate in Karachi and killed four people in an hour-long shootout. However, no Chinese national was hurt in the exchange of fire.

China has pledged over $60 billion for infrastructure projects in Pakistan under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor framework, which is central to Beijing’s initiative to forge new “Silk Road” through land and sea ties to markets across the Middle East, Europe and Africa.