ISLAMABAD: The Counterterrorism Department (CTD) Monday arrested a would-be woman suicide bomber planning to target a Chinese motorcade in Balochistan.
According to the CTD, the female suicide bomber belonged to the Majeed Brigade wing of the banned Baloch Liberation Army (BLA).
It was the BLA whose female suicide bomber had carried out an attack at the University of Karachi’s Confucius Institute in April, killing three Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver. The security officials also recovered explosives and detonators from the alleged suicide bomber.
The law enforcement agencies said that the arrested suicide bomber was planning to target Chinese officials on the route of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Following the arrest, the CTD is also conducting raids at different places to arrest other militants belonging to the group, according to media reports.
The reported arrest comes the same day as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif phoned his Chinese counterpart Mr Li Keqiang and assured him extraordinary security measures for the Chinese nationals in across Pakistan.
Officials blame hostile intelligence agencies for funding, training and equipping the Baloch terrorist groups and tasking them to target the Chinese nationals and installations in and around Balochistan.
The prevention of yet another terrorist attack against China-Pakistan cooperation in less than a month is significant, experts told Global Times, which demonstrates the Pakistani government’s commitment to stopping terrorism and preserving cooperation between the two countries.
Long-term cooperation between China and Pakistan is not affected by extreme terrorist activity, they said.
The counter-terrorism manhunt is underway to arrest other members of the group involved in the terrorist attack.
The blocking of the attack came hours after the phone call between Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Monday signifies the increasing trust between the friendly neighbours.
As the security situation in Pakistan is complicated and volatile at the moment, China and Pakistan will continue to carry out cooperation in combating terrorism and further strengthen the protection of Chinese projects and personnel, and the sharing of resources and intelligence, Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, told media on Monday.
“The terrorist organizations represented by the BLA chose to attack Chinese targets as they believed that China-Pakistan relations were the ‘soft underbelly’ of the Pakistani government, thus trying to force the Pakistani government to make concessions and compromises on political issues,” Qian said.
In the wake of April’s terrorist attack, Pakistan’s counterterrorism department’s timely prevention of another terrorist attack against Chinese-led projects on Monday demonstrates that Pakistan has further intensified its fight against terrorism, Zhu Yongbiao, director of the Center for Afghanistan Studies in Lanzhou University, said.
The government has been more aggressive in preventing such attacks, especially in terrorist attacks against Chinese projects, he said.
Earlier, two suspects related to attack in the University of Karachi were arrested. On Sunday, the police developed sketches of another women suspected of facilitating the suicide bomber, local media reported.
Zhu also noted that the re-emergence of terrorist attacks against Chinese projects in a short period of time also suggests related risks. “It proves that plans to launch terrorist attacks against China still exist and that these organizations have the capacity to carry them out.”
While it remains difficult to see a significant improvement in Pakistan’s domestic security environment in a short period of time, experts do not regard that it will bring a fundamental blow to Chinese and Pakistani cooperation.
“The security environment in Pakistan has always been tough, and there has not been a sharp rise in terrorist attacks against China,” Zhu said.
