Pak police arrest 5 Baloch separatists for Chinese consulate attack in Karachi

Pakistani police on Friday said they have arrested five suspects from a separatist Baloch group for the November attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi that killed four people, which they claimed was carried out to "sabotage" the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

At a press conference, Karachi police chief Amir Sheikh said the men arrested confessed to their role in facilitating the three attackers, who were also killed during the November 23 attack on the consulate.

He said the detainees were linked to the Baloch Liberation Army, a Balochistan-based group which had claimed responsibility for the attack at the time.

Three militants tried to storm the consulate in the city's posh Clifton area but security forces foiled their attempt by killing all of them in a gunbattle. The attack also killed two police officials and two visa applicants.

Shaikh claimed that the attack was planned in Afghanistan and executed with the help of India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) spy agency.

"The aim was to sabotage the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and create the impression in China that Karachi is not safe," he said.

There was no immediate reaction from the Ministry of External Affairs to the Pakistani claim.

India has opposed the CPEC as it passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). The ambitious USD 60 billion CPEC project connects China's northwestern Xinjiang region to Pakistan's Arabian Sea port of Gwadar.

India had strongly condemned the terror attack on the Chinese consulate and said such strikes only strengthen the resolve of the international community to combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.

"There can be no justification whatsoever for any act of terrorism. The perpetrators of this heinous attack should be brought to justice expeditiously," the Ministry of External Affairs had said in a statement.

Shaikh said that police arrested five facilitators and claimed that a probe based on their interrogation and other evidence proved the involvement of India.

He said the terrorists spent four to five months in observing the consulate and its working.

"They (terrorists) used to sit in the visa section of the consulate to observe when the gates open and other details," he said.

He said that the weapons were transported from Quetta to Karachi through train and were hidden in the engine of a boat.

Shaikh said the mastermind of the attack, Aslam alias Acho, was reportedly killed in a suicide blast in Afghanistan. However, he said he was not ready to believe it until there was proof of Aslam's death.

He said it was an old tactic of militants to show a wanted rebel killed in order to divert the attention of security agencies.