Ensuring safety of Chinese citizens top priority: Mohsin Naqvi

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi assured on Thursday that ensuring the safety of Chinese citizens and projects is the government’s top-most priority.

He said this during his meeting with Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Jiang Zaidong on Thursday. The minister condemned and regretted the firing incident in Karachi in which two Chinese citizens were wounded.

He conveyed his condolences to the victims and their families and also provided updates on the investigation’s progress.

The interior minister assured that those responsible for the Karachi attack would be brought to justice, adding that all possible steps are being taken to secure a peaceful environment for Chinese nationals working in Pakistan.

On Tuesday, two Chinese nationals were shot and injured in the SITE Industrial Area of Karachi, police and hospital officials said.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday also visited the Chinese Embassy to condemn the firing incident.

PM Shehbaz assured the Chinese ambassador that those responsible would be swiftly apprehended and brought to justice.

“I am personally overseeing the process of apprehending those involved in this incident and ensuring they are given due punishment,” said the prime minister.

He said it was a matter of satisfaction that health of the injured Chinese nationals was improving.

“China is a long-standing friend of Pakistan,” remarked the prime minister.

“This attack on Chinese nationals is a deplorable attempt to harm the brotherly relations between Pakistan and China,” the Prime Minister added.

Chinese engineers have been working on a number of projects in Pakistan with Beijing investing over $65 billion in infrastructure as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) under its wider Belt and Road initiative.

In October this year, a bombing near Karachi’s international airport killed two Chinese engineers.

In a statement emailed to journalists, the separatist militant group Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed the explosion was an attack carried out by them using a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device targeting Chinese nationals, including engineers, according to Reuters.