Pakistan’s new Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah is scheduled to visit Karachi on Wednesday (today) on the directives of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, a day after a female suicide bomber blew up a van at Karachi university, killing three Chinese faculty members and one Pakistani national.

The banned Baloch Liberation Army has claimed responsibility for the attack.

“We will re-evaluate all security operations of Chinese residents and take effective measures after a thorough review of security,” the interior minister said. “We will examine every aspect carefully.”

The interior minister said that he would ascertain the facts and that the government would keep the Chinese government updated on the investigation.

The federal government would fully cooperate with Chinese authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice, he added.

PM Shehbaz visited the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan on Tuesday evening to convey condolences. He pledged that he would not “rest until these murderers of Chinese Nationals were arrested and hanged till death.”

China has demanded of the Pakistani government to “make a thorough investigation of the incident, apprehend and punish the perpetrators to the full extent of the law, and take all possible measures to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens in Pakistan and prevent such incidents from happening again.”

Sindh CM visits Chinese CG to express solidarity

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah visited the Chinese consulate to express sorrow with Chinese Consul General Li Bijian.

The chief minister said the attack would be investigated “properly. He assured the consul general that the culprits would be brought to book.

The CM said the partnership of China in the overall development of Pakistan, particularly in Sindh was important and such incidents could not affect the strong relationship between the two nations. He expressed his condolences with the families of the Chinese nationals who lost their lives in the blast.

CM Murad told the consul general that his government would make all the arrangements to send the bodies to China for which he needed consulates guidance.

Chinese Consul General Li Bijian thanked the chief minister for his visit and said he was in contact with the families of three Chinese nationals killed in the blast. “Whatever decision is taken in respect of shifting the dead bodies back to China would be informed to the Sindh government,” Li Bijian said.

Earlier, Inspector General of Police Mushtaq Maher briefed CM Murad on the incident. The chief minister has directed the IG Police to conduct a security audit of Chinese nationals living in Sindh under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and non-CPEC related projects and report him.

History of targetted attacks

Chinese nationals living and working in Pakistan have been targetted by militant outfits, particularly those associated with the underdeveloped Balochistan province.

Last year, nine Chinese nationals were killed in a targetted attack on a bus in the region of Dassu in the northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.