A bomb blast at a luxury hotel in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s Balochistan province, has resulted in multiple casualties. It is believed that the target of the attack was a Chinese delegation staying at the hotel.
The explosion occurred on Wednesday evening (April 21, 2021) local time. Preliminary investigations indicate that a car carrying a bomb exploded in the hotel parking lot, killing at least four people and injuring more than a dozen others.
Pakistani Interior Minister Ahmed called it a terrorist attack in a statement. He added that a delegation led by Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Nong Rong was out for a meeting and was not at the hotel at the time.
The Pakistani Taliban group claimed to have carried out the suicide attack, but did not mention who was targeted. Some believe that the local anti-government group attempted to attack the Chinese delegation to express its displeasure with Beijing’s investment projects there.
In August 2018, Chinese engineers and technicians working in the area were injured in a suicide bomb attack. Anti-government elements in Pakistan’s Baluchistan region claimed the suicide bombing was their doing. A spokesman for the Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA) said at the time that they targeted a bus carrying Chinese engineers because the Chinese were digging gold mines in their area to the detriment of locals.
Ijaz Khan, a professor of international relations at the University of Peshawar, has told Voice of America that there is a long-standing armed separatist movement in Balochistan and that local minorities have consistently resisted outsiders, including the Chinese, who are promoting Belt and Road projects there, for fear that their homeland will become a Chinese colony .
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