Introduction: On the afternoon of April 26, the shuttle bus of the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi in Pakistan suffered a suicide terrorist attack on the campus. At present, 3 Chinese teachers have been killed, 1 Chinese teacher has been injured, and a number of Pakistani casualties have been caused. In recent years, terrorist forces in Pakistan have been on the rise, and Chinese citizens have suffered frequent terrorist attacks in Pakistan. In the face of this grim situation, how should China respond? Focusing on related issues, Observer.com interviewed Liu Zongyi, Secretary General of the Center for China and South Asia Studies of the Shanghai Institute of International Studies.
Observer Network: At present, the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), a terrorist group in Pakistan, has declared itself responsible for the incident. Last year, the organization was also present behind the attack on the attendance shuttle of the Dasu hydropower station. Why has the group repeatedly launched attacks against Chinese citizens?
Liu Zongyi: Terrorist organizations pursue judo politics with small and broad, and often create political sensations as much as possible through such bloody violent terrorist and suicide attacks. It is not particularly targeted in the selection of targets and often targets some innocent people.
The Balochistan Liberation Army (BA) is a separatist organization that carries out terrorism and whose main purpose is to gain Baloch independence. In fact, many countries have identified it as a terrorist organization, even the United States.
The Majid Brigade, which claimed responsibility for the incident, was an elite unit of the Balochistan Liberation Army (PLA) whose main task was to carry out suicide attacks. Earlier, the Majid Brigade also claimed that they were responsible for the attacks on the Chinese Consulate General in Karachi and the Karachi Stock Exchange.
As for why they targeted Chinese, a big reason is that the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor has a great impact in Pakistan, and the Pakistani government and military attach great importance to the safety of Chinese lives, so the purpose of their choice of Chinese is to put pressure on the Pakistani government and cause a greater sensational effect.
The scene of the explosion
Observer Network: According to the information disclosed so far, the suicide bombing attack was carried out by a Baloch woman with a double master's degree. Foreign media have previously reported that "Baloch people do not like Chinese" because "China's projects infringe on the interests of Baloch people". What do you think of this rhetoric?
Liu Zongyi: In fact, the words of organizations such as the Baluch Liberation Army, the Baloch Republican Army, and the Baloch Liberation Front are all like this. In fact, what they are asking for is baloch independence, and they want to turn Baloch into an economic zone exclusive to Baloch, and they don't want others to get involved.
The Balochians are a minority in Pakistan, but Balochistan is the largest province in Pakistan and is rich in energy deposits. Many of the CPEC projects are in Balochistan, the most famous of which is the Gwadar Port. Pakistan's own oil and mining projects are also here. So the Baloch were more worried that this wealth would be stolen by people from other provinces.
But to be honest, the construction of our China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, especially the construction of Gwadar Port, has taken great care of the interests of the local people and built a large number of livelihood projects in the local area. At this point, what we Chinese do is absolutely unashamed.
The United States, Europe and other Western countries have a set of sayings about China's "Belt and Road" projects, wherever the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor passes, wherever there are "Belt and Road" projects, they will hype China's plundering of local energy and resources, portray Chinese as predators and usurers, and portray locals as victims of plunderers and so-called "debt traps". This is how the Indian media, including the Indian media, is promoted in this way. At present, the propaganda caliber of BLA is the same as that of the United States, the West and India, and it is possible that BLA is to please these countries and get more support.
Observer Network: This violent terrorist incident occurred in Karachi. There have also been violent incidents and even terrorist attacks caused by ethnic and religious conflicts here before, but in such an extreme way, it seems that it was rare in the past. Is there a trend towards further rearing the number of terrorist forces now hidden in Karachi? Why is this happening?
Liu Zongyi: Local security in Karachi is really bad, and it has been such a situation for many years. It's a mess, but there are relatively few terrorist attacks like this, and there are only a handful of organizations that can carry them out.
The attack on the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi was carried out by a female member of the Majid Brigade. The use of women to carry out terrorist attacks is the first time for BLA, but there have been cases of using children as suicide bombers. The involvement of women and children in terrorist acts also makes terrorist attacks more covert and overwhelming. The use of women and children as suicide bombers can be said to be increasingly heinous and frustrating in the use of attacks by these terrorist organizations and terrorists.
It should also be noted that the woman who carried out the suicide attack in the Majid Brigade was a highly educated woman from a middle-class family. Past suicide attackers were largely uneducated tribal members.
Image of the attacker On the right is the van that was attacked
Now BLA and some Indian and Western media are desperately trying to publicize that the suicide attacker made a voluntary sacrifice and that her husband and children are very supportive of her in carrying out this suicide attack. We don't know what ulterior motives are behind this, but neither the actions of the suicide attackers themselves nor the actions of their relatives are understandable to normal people.
The success of this attack is due to negligence and management problems within the campus. Why the attacker was able to linger at the target point for a long time and whether he had "internal response" cooperation needs to be further investigated.
On March 31, the security department of the University of Karachi warned that the teachers of the Confucius Institute were living in an off-campus hotel and that the security forces on the road were too weak when commuting to and from work every day. For terrorists, they will take advantage of them whenever they find an opportunity to take advantage of it. Given the versatility of terrorist organizations' terrorist attacks, vigilance must be heightened.
There has been a marked increase in terrorist attacks in Pakistan recently, mainly because after the Afghan Taliban took control of Afghanistan, many members of terrorist organizations were expelled and many flowed into Pakistan. The headquarters of the Balochistan Liberation Army (ALA) was previously in Afghanistan.
Observer Network: Just over a month ago, on March 4, there was a suicide bomb attack on a mosque in Peshawar, and the Islamic State later declared itself responsible. Pakistan, which is deeply influenced by terrorist forces such as the Pakistani Taliban, the Islamic State and al-Qaida, has repeatedly expressed its determination to eliminate terrorism, but in addition to zero tolerance, the fight against proliferation of terrorism still requires the support of strong action. What are the practical challenges for Pakistan in implementing a comprehensive counter-terrorism plan?
Liu Zongyi: First of all, since the Pakistani military carried out Operation Sword in 2014, the number of terrorist attacks has declined. An important reason for the resurgence of terrorism in the last year or two is geopolitical changes. Some terrorist organizations and separatists in Pakistan are supported by foreign powers and have a very clear goal of undermining Pakistan's internal stability and interfering with the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
Secondly, the counter-terrorism situation in Pakistan has become more complicated after the changes in the situation in Afghanistan, as some terrorist organizations that were originally lurking in Afghanistan have begun to transfer some of their forces to Pakistan.
Take "Bata", for example, which originally had some power in Afghanistan. "Bata" and "Atta" are not the same thing, but "Bata" is now inspired by the Afghan Taliban to seize power and wants to emulate "Atta" in Pakistan. Bata is now the largest terrorist force in Pakistan. The Pakistani government and army are very troubled by this, how to deal with them, there is no more effective way, the negotiation effect is not obvious.
Thirdly, in the last year or two, a number of terrorist organizations in Pakistan have begun to have a tendency to unite, which is particularly evident in Balochistan. Originally, most of these rebel groups were based on tribes, and there were many contradictions between them, but now there is a tendency to unite, so the challenge for Pakistan is still very serious. Especially now, Pakistan's domestic politics is not too stable, and the economic situation is not good.
On March 4, rescuers inspected the damage at a mosque attacked in Peshawar, Pakistan. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Saeed Ahmed)
Observer Network: Based on the situation you mentioned, there are also views that China should further strengthen cooperation with the "Pakistan Railway" in the field of counter-terrorism, and even consider cross-border counter-terrorism. In your observation, how should China respond to the frequent terrorist attacks in Pakistan?
Liu Zongyi: First of all, the counter-terrorism cooperation between China and Pakistan has always been very close, and great results have been achieved in combating regional terrorism and domestic terrorism. But I am very much in favor of allowing the Chinese military to go directly into Pakistan to carry out operations against local terrorist organizations.
If China provides weapons systems or technologies, this can be considered. However, due to the complex internal affairs involved, counter-terrorism operations in Pakistan should be carried out mainly by the Pakistani military and police.
Second, the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor does require a peaceful and stable regional security environment, so on this issue, we need not only cooperation between China and Pakistan, but also regional cooperation.
Third, we are now in a dilemma over the security of CPEC: Pakistan has set up a special police force of 15,000 people to protect the construction of CPEC and the safety of Chinese engineers and technicians and Chinese workers. This effect is still good overall, but it also has drawbacks. First, it has added an economic burden to Pakistan and China, and second, this security force has actually completely protected our Chinese and completely isolated from the locals.
In fact, on the one hand, this method can ensure the safety of Chinese, but on the other hand, it also makes some estrangement and misunderstanding between Chinese and locals. When we went to Pakistan, it was often the Pakistani military and police who hugged each other and went out with machine guns on the car. We don't feel very good, but there really isn't a better way to do it now.
A political solution is necessary to address the issue of terrorism in Pakistan, particularly in relation to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. For the Pakistani government, finding a suitable political solution may be more effective than a purely military strike. For these rebel groups in Balochistan, their ultimate goal is very clear, that is, independence, so there is little room for compromise on this issue. Therefore, how the Pakistani government can work with local tribal leaders to weaken the rebel groups as much as possible is critical.
In addition, considering the family background of the suicide attacker, if she is really voluntary, rather than coerced, the Pakistani government should seriously reflect on how to better appease the middle class in Balochistan and Pakistan in the process of economic and social development, and how to better take care of their interests.
Finally, to effectively combat terrorism in Pakistan, they also need to completely cut off their ties with their backers abroad. If the information revealed by Pakistani intelligence is true, then the terrorist acts in Pakistan now, especially the terrorist attacks against Chinese, are, according to their judgment, proxy wars, and the existence of Indian and US support cannot be ruled out behind them.
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