"People from nearby villages come to this this market town every Friday morning for shopping and to sell their products," he said. "There was a huge gathering of local people when the suicide bomber riding a motorcycle entered and blew himself up."

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

The blast occurred at around the same time that armed separatists stormed the Chinese Consulate in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi.

Kalaya has a large population of Shiite Muslims, a minority in Pakistan that has been increasingly targeted by Sunni extremist groups such as the Islamic State and the Pakistani Taliban. Sunnis and non-Muslim Sikhs were also among the victims, according to Khan.

Government officials said that death toll could rise as some of the injured were listed in critical condition.

The district of Orakzai, where Kalaya is located, was for decades a refuge for Islamist militants fighting across the border in Afghanistan. More recently it has been a home for many who are battling against Pakistan's government.

Pakistani security forces increased operations along the border in 2009 and have cleared some areas of fighters.</s>Dera Ismial Khan, Pakistan (Reuters) - A blast at a crowded market in a town in Pakistan’s northwest killed at least 8 people on Friday and wounded 20 others, a local government official said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the blast in the northwestern Orakzai district.

“Eight people have been killed and over 20 are injured. We are checking on further details,” local government official Mutahir Zeb told Reuters.

The blast occurred around the same time as three attackers attempted to storm the Chinese Consulate in the southern port city of Karachi in an unrelated incident in which two police officials were killed. The Karachi attack was claimed by the ethnic insurgent Baloch Liberation Army.</s>Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) Armed attackers attempted to storm the Chinese consulate in the Pakistani city of Karachi on Friday morning, killing four people, authorities said.

Three attackers also were killed in the assault on the consulate in the city's high-security red zone, according to a Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman.

The Baloch Liberation Army, a separatist group, claimed responsibility in a tweet that included a photo of three unidentified men and the message: "Karachi: Fidayeen of BLA attacked the Chinese embassy in Karachi."

"Fidayeen" is an Arabic term that loosely translates as "one who sacrifices himself."

In a statement released after the attack, the group said its objectives were "clear -- we will not tolerate any Chinese military expansionist endeavors on Baloch soil."

Read More</s>The attack was claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), an ethnic insurgent group who opposes China's exploitation of natural resources in southwest Pakistan.

It is the most prominent attack against neighbor and ally China, which is pouring billions of dollars into the country as part of its vast Belt and Road initiative.

China "strongly condemned" the attack and asked Pakistan to take measures to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens and institutions in the country, as well as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) mega-project.

In another incident on Friday, at least 25 people were killed in a bomb attack in north-west Pakistan.

The blast outside the consulate occurred in a mostly Shia neighbourhood in Orakzai district.

Police say three gunmen tried to enter the building in the southern port city, but were intercepted by guards at a checkpoint, Karachi police chief Ameer Sheikh told AFP news agency.

"They were holding Kalashnikovs. First, they hurled a small (grenade) and then started firing," said Allah Bakhsh, a guard at a nearby house who witnessed the attack.

Police officials said two of their personnel were killed, along with a father and son from Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, who were seeking Chinese visas and were caught in the crossfire.

At least one of the attackers was wearing a suicide vest which did not detonate, another senior police official said.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told reporters in Islamabad that "all the terrorists have been eliminated", and that all 21 staff at the consulate during the attack had been taken to a safe location.

"Situation under control," the military's media wing added in a statement.

The attack was claimed by a separatist militant group from Pakistan's southwestern province of Balochistan, which is at the centre of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the major Chinese project in the country.

"We have been seeing the Chinese as an oppressor, along with Pakistani forces," the spokesman for the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), Geand Baloch, told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location, adding they were "destroying the future of Balochistan".

The BLA later emailed a statement to media in which it said the attack was "aimed at making it clear that China's military expansionism on Baloch soil will not be tolerated".

It warned the Chinese to leave or "be prepared for continued attacks".

The group is just one of the militant outfits operating in Balochistan, Pakistan's largest and poorest province, which is rife with ethnic, sectarian and separatist insurgencies.

Residents of the resource-rich province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, have long complained that it does not receive a fair share of the profits made from its mineral wealth.

Prime Minister Imran Khan said Friday's attack would not undermine the Pakistan-China relationship, which he described in a statement as "mightier than Himalayas and deeper than Arabian Sea".

China, one of Pakistan's closest allies, has poured billions into the South Asian country in recent years as part of CPEC, a massive infrastructure project that seeks to connect its western province Xinjiang with the Arabian Sea port of Gwadar in Balochistan.

The project is one of the largest in Beijing's "One Belt One Road" initiative, comprising a network of roads and sea routes involving 65 countries.

Pakistan sees the project as a "gamechanger", but it presents an enormous challenge in a country plagued by weak institutions, endemic corruption and a range of insurgencies in areas slated to host the corridor.

The subject of economic dividends from CPEC is extremely sensitive in some of those areas -- particularly in Balochistan.

Since the beginning of the project militants have repeatedly attacked construction sites, blowing up numerous gas pipelines and trains, and targeted Chinese workers.

In August this year three Chinese nationals were among six wounded in a suicide attack on a bus transporting Chinese engineers working in Balochistan, in an attack that was also claimed by the BLA.

The Pakistani military has been targeting insurgencies in the province since 2004, and has been repeatedly accused by international rights groups of abuses there.

Islamabad regularly accuses its eastern neighbour India of funding and arming Baloch separatists, and of targeting development projects in the province, particularly CPEC.

India's foreign ministry swiftly condemned Friday's attack in a statement, saying: "There can be no justification whatsoever for any act of terrorism".</s>KARACHI, Pakistan: At least two Pakistani policemen were killed and a security guard wounded during an attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi on Friday (Nov 23), a doctor told Reuters.

"We have two cops brought dead and security guard injured due to blast impact," said Seemin Jamali, a doctor at the Jinnah Hospital in Karachi.

Shortly after the attack, a separatist militant group from the Pakistani province of Balochistan claimed responsibility for it.

"We have carried out this attack and our action is continuing," the spokesman for the Balochistan Liberation Army, Geand Baloch, told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.



"There were three suicide attackers," he said. "They stormed the Chinese embassy in Karachi. China is exploiting our resources."



Geo TV reported one gunman was killed in the attack and a "suicide vest" had been recovered.

The Karachi police chief later confirmed that three suicide bombers were also killed in the attack, and the attackers were unable to get into the building.



"There were three attackers and all three have been killed ... They could not even get in the compound. They tried to get into the visa section," the police chief, Amir Shaikh, told reporters.



He added that the suicide bombers used an explosive-filled vehicle during the attack.

Up to four gunmen tried to enter the consulate but were intercepted by security guards at a checkpoint, senior local police official Javaid Alam Odho told AFP.



He added that the attackers "ran away" but did not confirm if the attack was over, saying the area had been cordoned off and security forces were conducting a clearing operation.

"Police and Rangers have reached the site," added senior police official Pir Muhammad Shah.

The Pakistani foreign ministry confirmed that all 21 Chinese staff inside the the attacked consulate are safe.

Pictures posted to social media purportedly of the attack showed smoke rising from the area.

Karachi, Pakistan's largest city and a financial hub, was for years rife with political, sectarian and ethnic militancy.

A crackdown in the city by security forces in recent years has brought a lull in violence, but scattered attacks still take place.

China, one of Pakistan's closest allies, has poured billions into the South Asian country in recent years as part of a massive infrastructure project that seeks to connect its western province Xinjiang with the Arabian Sea.

The project, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, is one of the largest projects in Beijing's "One Belt One Road" initiative, comprising a network of roads and sea routes involving 65 countries.

But for Pakistan, participating in the project presents an enormous challenge in a country plagued by weak institutions, endemic corruption and a range of insurgencies in areas slated to host the corridor.

The subject of economic dividends from CPEC is extremely sensitive in some of the areas the corridor will run through - particularly in resource-rich Balochistan.

Since the beginning of the project militants have repeatedly attacked construction sites and targeted Chinese workers.

Karachi, Pakistan's largest city and a financial hub, was for years rife with political, sectarian and ethnic militancy.

A crackdown in the city by security forces in recent years has brought a lull in violence, but scattered attacks still take place.</s>The so-called “Balochistan Liberation Army’s” suicide attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi is a serious escalation of the Hybrid War on CPEC designed to put unprecedented pressure on China ahead of President Xi’s planned meeting with his American counterpart at the G20 Summit next week.

The Chinese consulate in Pakistan’s largest city of Karachi was targeted by a suicide attack Friday morning that was claimed by the so-called “Balochistan Liberation Army” (BLA), an Indian-backed terrorist group that’s been a problem for decades. The state had recently scored plenty of successes against it though in both the military and ideological domains, the former of which is attributable to Pakistan’s nationwide anti-terrorist operations over the past few years while the latter is due to prominent separatist Dr. Jumma Baloch’s defection from his former “fellows” in February and his subsequent creation of the Overseas Pakistani Baloch Unity (OPBU) for peacefully reintegrating foreign-based fighters into their homeland’s social fabric.

Altogether, the military and ideological gains that Pakistan achieved are sustained by the fresh wind of optimism that the Baloch minority now has about their future in the Silk Road Century, seeing as how their region forms the terminal point of the Belt & Road Initiative’s (BRI) flagship project of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and is correspondingly mainland-maritime pivot in Afro-Eurasia. In fact, it can be argued that any “separatist insurgency” that might have previously existed in Balochistan had been strategically neutralized in its entirety, ergo why the foreign-backed remnants of the BLA resorted to the desperate means of carrying out a terrorist attack against the Chinese consulate in Karachi in order to instantaneously draw international media attention to their “cause”.

Unaware observers shouldn’t be fooled into falling for the BLA’s narrative that it supposedly represents an “oppressed people yearning for freedom”, since Dr. Jumma proved that not only have the Baloch’s previous misgivings been addressed by the promises that the Pakistan state made to them through CPEC, but this famous separatist also outright spilled the beans and declared that India hijacked the original struggle that he previously dedicated his life to supporting. He even traveled throughout Europe earlier this year to raise awareness about how some countries are hosting dangerous terrorists from his homeland in an important series of visits that exposed the continent’s double standards towards this scourge.

Regrettably, his warnings weren’t heeded and now some European states have blood on their hands for pretending that the BLA and other terrorist organizations from Balochistan are nothing more than “political opposition groups”, but the country that deserves the most blame for the latest attack is India. Kalbushan Jadhav, a Hybrid War operative working with India’s Research & Analysis Wing (RAW, an analogue of the CIA and Mossad), admitted after his capture last year that he was fomenting terrorist attacks in this strategic region, thereby proving that the Indo-American Hybrid War on CPEC isn’t just a “conspiracy theory” but can nowadays be regarded as a conspiracy fact.

Speaking of which, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan officially stated that the latest attack was indeed a conspiracy aimed at sabotaging his country’s cooperation with China, which isn’t surprising considering that the Chief Of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa warned over the weekend that Pakistan is “now confronting hybrid conflict where focus is shifting to subversion on religious, sectarian, ethnic and social issues”. Accordingly, the latest stage of the Hybrid War on CPEC perfectly fits into this model because it’s aimed at exacerbating identity fault lines within this diverse country, albeit in an artificial way that wouldn’t naturally occur without the crucial catalyst of terrorism.

To explain, the foreign backers behind the Karachi suicide attack are hoping that it will provoke a disproportionate military response in Balochistan that could cause collateral damage among civilians and thus set into motion a “self-sustaining” Hybrid War reaction from the locals that could roll back the recent gains that were achieved. This is highly unlikely to happen, however, because of the world-class professionalism of the Pakistani Armed Forces, which is why the only outcome will probably be that the two countries behind this destabilization operation will invest in decontextualizing, misportraying, and then over-amplifying events in order to produce the false narrative of a purportedly ongoing “identity/separatist/freedom conflict” there that could then be spread across the Mainstream Media as part of their infowar against BRI.

The weaponized management of global perceptions is intended to propagate the notion that Pakistan is allegedly a “very dangerous and unstable” country that no foreign company should risk doing business in, even if it’s to take advantage of the time-saving geostrategic shortcut of trading with China via CPEC. The whole point of this campaign is to sow seeds of doubt about Pakistan, China, CPEC, and ultimately BRI itself which could eventually lead to economic hardships for all of them if the Silk Road’s flagship project is perceived (key word) to be “functionally unviable” by the “international community” as a result of this coordinated propaganda attack against it.

In fact, any fake news that might be spun in the coming future about any alleged “atrocities” carried out by the Pakistani military against the Baloch (either in the past or the present day) could be used to set the narrative basis for the US to sanction Pakistan, just as it might be planning to do with China as regards the issue of Uighur terrorism in Xinjiang, with it being implied by the US that entities doing business with the South Asian state (especially its Balochistan region) and/or the western Chinese province could be eligible for “secondary sanctions”. This would in effect amount to the indirect sanctioning of CPEC, a disturbing scenario that Pakistan and its all-weather Chinese ally should possibly prepare for.

BRI is currently undergoing an unofficial period of “restructuring” after countries from Malaysia to the Maldives and even Ethiopia are renegotiating their previous commitments to this worldwide series of connectivity projects, so putting pressure on CPEC at this specific moment (be it of the Hybrid War and/or sanctions variant) is intended to destabilize the foundation of China’s grand strategy. It also can’t be forgotten that all of this is occurring in the run-up to President Xi’s planned meeting with his American counterpart at the G20 next week right on the heels of Vice President Pence’s dramatic declaration about an impending “all-out cold war” between the two Great Powers during last weekend’s APEC Summit.

Some media reports have speculated that the US wants China to agree to a so-called “truce” in their “trade war”, which might turn out to be nothing more than a euphemism for demanding its rival’s strategic capitulation. Considering this very plausible scenario in light of the new American administration’s tendency to unabashedly bully its counterparts on the international arena, it wouldn’t be surprising if Washington tasked its new allies in New Delhi with ordering their BLA proxies to carry out the terrorist attack against the Chinese consulate in Karachi in order to exert maximum pressure on Beijing prior to next week’s summit between Presidents Xi and Trump.

Regardless of the analytical conjecture about who might have really been behind this high-profile suicide attack and why, it should be expected that this brazen act of terror will be exploited by third parties for their own benefit, be it by India to distract from its abuses in occupied Kashmir or by the US to push China into complying with its terms for a “truce”. Concerted efforts will be made in the near future by both of those countries to portray this event as “proof” that Pakistan is “unstable”, but what it really proves is that the Hybrid War on CPEC is just getting started and that the “Zipper of Eurasia” has a game-changing global geostrategic significance that neither of them will ever openly admit.

Note to readers: please click the share buttons above. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.

This article was originally published on Eurasia Future.

Andrew Korybko is an American Moscow-based political analyst specializing in the relationship between the US strategy in Afro-Eurasia, China’s One Belt One Road global vision of New Silk Road connectivity, and Hybrid Warfare. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.</s>Updated at 9:57 a.m. ET

Separatist militants armed with guns and a suicide vest tried to storm the Chinese consulate in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi on Friday, in one of the most serious attacks in years against Chinese nationals in the Islamic state. No Chinese nationals or consulate staff were harmed.

At least seven people were killed as police clashed with the militants: three militants, two policemen and a father and son, Pakistani nationals, who were apparently at the consulate to pick up visas, The Associated Press said.

But none of the 21 Chinese nationals inside the large compound in Karachi were hurt, according to the Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi. He told local reporters that Chinese diplomats and staff members were taken to a secure location following the attack.

The attack on the consulate comes at a delicate time for relations between Pakistan and China. Islamabad is hoping to secure billions of dollars in loans from Beijing to shore up its precarious economy.

In an apparently unrelated attack that occurred hours after the assault on the consulate, a bomb blast targeted a Shiite community in Pakistan's remote northwest province, killing at least 31 people.

The two incidents underscore Pakistan's ongoing instability, even as much of the country is now considered safe after years of militant attacks primarily targeting its cities.

At a daily news briefing in Beijing, China's foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang strongly condemned the attack on the consulate but said the militants did not enter the compound.

Video from the scene showed smoke billowing from the area as the sound of explosions echoed through the upscale neighborhood.

One video posted on social media appeared to have been made by a Pakistani man who was inside the consulate for a visa application at the time of the attack. In it, he narrates the events unfolding in real time. "You might also hear the shots," he says in Urdu to the sound of a sharp blast. "We don't know what's happening outside."

The attack ended shortly after it began on Friday morning, and later video showed paramilitary forces and police rushing to cordon off the area.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan suggested the attack was "part of conspiracy against Pak and China economic and strategic cooperation," according to a statement issued by Khan's office.

"The prime minister has ordered a complete inquiry into the incident and has desired that elements behind this incident must be unearthed," the statement said.

The incident represents a troubling strike against the Chinese community in Pakistan, which numbers tens of thousands of nationals. Many of them are linked to the sprawling China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, known as CPEC. It is a multi-billion dollar series of Chinese investments in Pakistan's infrastructure and energy projects.

Following the attack, the Chinese embassy in Islamabad said in a statement that it believed Pakistan was still able to secure China's interests in the country.

"The Pakistani side is able to ensure the safety of Chinese institutions and personnel in Pakistan," it said. "Any attempt to undermine the China-Pakistan relationship is doomed to fail."

A group calling itself the Balochistan Liberation Army, which has carried out several attacks in the past decade, claimed responsibility. The group said it was protesting "Chinese occupation" according to the AP.

There has long been resentment in Balochistan against Chinese investments in the province, particularly those that pertain to the development of the port of Gwadar. Resident there allege that the Chinese-led expansion of the port has stripped Baloch fishermen of their livelihoods, pushed them out of the homes and siphoned off their water supply. They also allege that Pakistani forces more harshly targeted their separatists, even peaceful activists, under the pretext of protecting Chinese assets in the area.

It was the most serious incident since August, when a suicide bomber rammed into a bus transporting Chinese workers to a mining project in Balochistan. Three people were wounded. The Balochistan Liberation Army claimed responsibility for that attack.

And in February, a Chinese national who worked for a shipping firm in Karachi was shot dead in an attack. It was unclear if the assailants in that incident were linked to militant groups.

Friday's attack came weeks after Khan, the prime minister, visited China in a bid to secure more loans to help save Pakistan's economy from unraveling. The country is currently facing a foreign currency shortage and has also sought assistance from Saudi Arabia as well as a bailout from the International Monetary Fund.

"The attack was intended to scare Chinese investors and undermine CPEC," Khan tweeted. "These terrorists will not succeed."

In Pakistan's northwest meanwhile, there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast that struck a crowded vegetable market in the largely Shiite town of Hangu. But targeting Shiites suggested that it was carried out by Sunni militants who have been known to frequently target the country's minority Shiite community.

The explosion killed at least 31 people and wounded dozens more, according to Khalid Iqbal, the district deputy commissioner.</s>At least two policemen were killed when unidentified gunmen stormed the Chinese consulate in the Pakistani port city of Karachi on Friday, officials said.

A separatist militant group from the Pakistani province of Balochistan has claimed responsibility for the attack on the Chinese consulate, its spokesman told AFP on Friday.

“We have carried out this attack and our action is continuing,” the spokesman for the Balochistan Liberation Army, Geand Baloch, told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.

The group is at the centre of a major Chinese investment project in the country.

The BLA is just one of the militant groups operating in Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest and poorest province, which is rife with ethnic, sectarian and separatist insurgencies.

Up to four gunmen tried to enter the consulate but were intercepted by security guards at a checkpoint, senior local police official Javaid Alam Odho told AFP.

An exchange of fire resulted “killing two of our constables and critically wounding another”, he said.

He added that the attackers “ran away” but did not confirm if the attack was over, saying the area had been cordoned off and security forces were conducting a clearing operation.

“Police and Rangers have reached the site,” added senior police official Pir Muhammad Shah.

Pictures posted on social media purportedly of the attack showed smoke rising from the area.

Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and a financial hub, was for years rife with political, sectarian and ethnic militancy.

A crackdown in the city by security forces in recent years has brought a lull in violence, but scattered attacks still take place.

China, one of Pakistan’s closest allies, has poured billions into the South Asian country in recent years as part of a massive infrastructure project that seeks to connect its western province Xinjiang with the Arabian Sea.

The project, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, is one of the largest projects in Beijing’s “One Belt One Road” initiative, comprising a network of roads and sea routes involving 65 countries.

But for Pakistan, participating in the project presents an enormous challenge in a country plagued by weak institutions, endemic corruption and a range of insurgencies in areas slated to host the corridor.

The subject of economic dividends from CPEC is extremely sensitive in some of the areas the corridor will run through -- particularly in resource-rich Balochistan.

Since the beginning of the project militants have repeatedly attacked construction sites and targeted Chinese workers.

Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and a financial hub, was for years rife with political, sectarian and ethnic militancy.

A crackdown in the city by security forces in recent years has brought a lull in violence, but scattered attacks still take place.</s>Karachi: Pakistani officials say three gunmen who stormed the Chinese consulate in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi are dead, after an intense shootout.

Two police officers are also dead.

Senior police official Ameer Ahmad Sheikh said all the Chinese diplomats and staff at the consulate were safe and were not harmed during the assault or the shootout on Friday.

The Baluch Liberation Army, a separatist group based in the south-western province of Baluchistan, claimed responsibility for the attack and released photos of the three attackers.</s>At least four militants have carried out a terror attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi

According to witnesses, the weapons were fired near the consulate in Clifton Block 4 around 9.30am local time (4.30am GMT). At least two policemen were shot dead in the attack and a security guard was wounded. Local media reported that the injured had reached Jinnah hospital.

EXPLOSION and GUNFIRE at Karachi Chinese consulate as 'te...

It is not yet clear whether Chinese officials were harmed but Karachi police chief Amir Shaikh confirmed the attackers were not able to get inside the consulate.

Mr Sheikh said: “They tried to enter the visa section but did not succeed.”

Pakistan's insurgent separatist militant group Balochistan has claimed responsibility for the attack and asserted that their action “is continuing”.

The spokesman for the Balochistan Liberation Army, Geand Baloch, told Reuters: “There were three suicide attackers.
Four people are killed in an armed assault on the Chinese consulate in Karachi, Pakistan. Three attackers are also dead. The attack is claimed by the Balochistan Liberation Army.