ISLAMABAD: A security guard shot and injured two Chinese nationals at a textile factory in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi on Tuesday, police said, adding that the attack was not linked to militancy.
Zia ul Haq Langar, Sindh province’s home minister, said the shooting incident took place in Karachi’s Sindh Industrial Trading Estate (SITE) area. He said an investigation was underway.
According to police, the guard opened fire on the Chinese workers after a heated argument and ensuing scuffle, which left the two foreign nationals injured. They were taken to the nearby Liaquat National Hospital in the commercial hub. A hospital spokesperson said the two were being treated, and one of them was in critical condition.
The shooting incident is likely to put further strain on Islamabad’s fraying ties with Beijing against a backdrop of rare tensions between the two countries that stem from growing security threats to Chinese workers and engineers working on infrastructure development projects in Pakistan under China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Last week, the Chinese ambassador in Islamabad criticised the repeated attacks on his country’s citizens in Pakistan, labelling them as “unacceptable” and a barrier to their investments.
In an unprecedented response, Pakistan’s foreign office had described the Chinese envoy’s remarks as “perplexing” and inconsistent with “the diplomatic traditions” that exist between the two nations.
Attacks against the govt, army, and Chinese interests have been common in the south and southwestern regions due to a decades-long insurgency by separatists seeking a share in resources of their mineral rich-Balochistan province.
In October, a bombing near Karachi’s international airport killed two Chinese engineers; the attack was claimed by separatist militant group Baloch Liberation Army. In March, five Chinese engineers died in a suicide bombing in Pakistan’s northwest. Twenty-one Chinese workers have been killed in Pakistan since the two countries launched the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project a decade ago.