ISLAMA BAD, Pakistan – A powerful bomb blast near the southern city of Pakistan has killed at least four people and injured 12 others. China’s ambassador to Pakistan may have missed the blast in just a few minutes.
The ambassador, Nong Rong, was the leader of a Chinese delegation that visited the area and stayed at the hotel, the Serena, in Quetta, capital of the province of Baluchistan.
“The Chinese stayed in Serena Hotel, but they were not in the hotel during the attack,” Pakistani Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told local news media.
The Chinese delegation was safe and all victims of Pakistani civilians, officials said. Two senior civil servants were among the wounded.
It was unclear whether the Chinese visitors were the targets for the attack, which was claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, or Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, known as the TTP. The group’s statement of responsibility said a suicide bomber was planning to hold a meeting of ‘locals and foreigners’ in the Serena.
China is considered a key ally of Pakistan and has undertaken several infrastructure projects along with a deep sea port in Baluchistan province.
An intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss security issues, said the Chinese ambassador had attended a dinner with senior Pakistani military officials and that he was on his way to the hotel and that he was only minutes away. was when the explosion occurred.
There was no immediate official confirmation that the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber, as alleged by the TTP. According to the initial investigation, there was explosives in a vehicle that exploded in the parking lot.
The blast was heard at a long distance and severely damaged more than a dozen vehicles in the parking lot of the luxury hotel. It is in a heavily guarded area with very important government buildings.
Pakistani officials have acknowledged that the blast was a major security breach.
Baluchistan is rich in minerals and natural gas, and the province is also considered by Pakistani officials as an arena for proxy wars between regional and international powers, including India and Iran.
Separators from Baluch regularly targeted the Chinese presence in Baluchistan. A luxury hotel in Gwadar, a city in the coastal region where China is working on a deep-sea port project, was attacked in 2019 by Baluch separatists.
“Given the multiplicity of groups that want to target Chinese interests, I will take the claim of the TTP with a grain of salt,” said Arif Rafiq, president of Vizier Consulting, a political advisory firm in New York. “But if the group is responsible, the attack reflects a strengthening of its ability to achieve high-security urban targets in Pakistan.”
He also noted that the TTP’s claim of responsibility did not specifically refer to Chinese citizens or interests, and it was therefore possible ‘that the attackers were not actually aware of their presence.’