An unidentified armed assailant stormed a dental clinic in Pakistan’s commercial capital Karachi, killing a Chinese national and injuring two others on Wednesday, police said.
The assailant, who, according to initial investigations acted alone, entered the clinic in Karachi’s busy downtown area of Saddar pretending to be a patient, and opened fire.
In a press statement, Karachi police identified the killed as 25-year old Chinese national Ronild Raimond Chaw, while 72-year-old Margrade and 74-year-old Richard as wounded.
A CCTV footage showed the assailant, donned in black clothes and sporting a red cap, resorting to fire soon after entering the clinic. The suspect fled by foot taking cover of a panicked crowd.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, which comes just days after Pakistan’s Prime Minister met Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
In the meeting held on Sept. 16, Xi said China hopes Pakistan will provide “solid protection” to Chinese citizens and institutions in Pakistan.
A number of Chinese dental clinics, mostly uncertified, have long been operating in the city’s downtown.
The assault is the latest in attacks on Chinese nationals, most of them working on the multi-billion dollar China Pakistan Economic Corridor project in Pakistan.
Three Chinese nationals were killed in a suicide attack at the University of Karachi’s Confucius Institute, a Chinese language learning center, in April. The Balochistan Liberation Army, an outlawed Baloch insurgent group, had claimed responsibility for the attack.
China and Pakistan are “all-weather” strategic partners, with the two nations cooperating in various sectors.
Signed in 2015, the $64 billion CPEC aims to connect China’s Xinjiang province to Gwadar port in Balochistan. It includes a number of infrastructure and power projects.
-AA