Explosion at a hotel in Pakistan: Four killed in cars bombed in front of the Quetta hotel, where a Chinese ambassador appears to have stayed

Quetta is the capital of Balochistan province, near the border with Afghanistan. The province has seen a decades-long insurgency of separatists demanding independence from Pakistan, citing what they say is the state’s monopoly and exploitation of the province’s mineral resources.

The blast in front of the Serena Hotel took place on Wednesday night, local time, and rescue and security services are investigating the incident, Muhammad Akram, a rescue official at the scene, told CNN.

Hotel Serena is considered the safest hotel in Quetta and is usually the place where international development teams and diplomats choose to stay during the visit.

“This incident took place after the Iftar (rapid break-in). The car was parked in the parking lot of the Serena Hotel,” Balochistan Interior Minister Ziaullah Lango told Reuters. “One of our policemen is among the injured.”

Images and images from the scene show burning vehicles in the hotel parking lot and thick smoke coming out of the explosion.

The Pakistani Taliban, a militant group known as Tehreek and the Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for the bombing. In an email received by CNN, TTP spokesman Muhammad Khurassani said it was a “suicide attack carried out by a TTP car bomber” and that “further details will be provided soon.” .

China’s ambassador to Pakistan, Nong Rong, was staying at the hotel but was not there when the bomb exploded, Pakistan’s interior minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, told Reuters on Wednesday.

Smokes from vehicles burning at the bomb blast site in Quetta, Pakistan, on April 21, 2021.

Lango, the province’s interior minister, said the ambassador was “very spirited” and would continue his activities on Thursday. “He also said he would leave only after he finished his tour,” Lango said.

It was unclear whether the envoy or members of his delegation were the target of the attack, but Chinese citizens and their interests in the region were attacked before the militants.

Last year, the Karachi Pakistan Stock Exchange was targeted by an attack claimed by the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) separatist group, which said the attack targeted China’s economic interests “in retaliation for Chinese exploitation plans in Balochistan.”
In 2018, the BLA claimed another attack in which armed attackers tried to assault the Chinese consulate in Karachi, killing four people, saying it would not tolerate any Chinese expansionist military efforts.
In October 2020, an attack by an umbrella organization of Baloch militant groups, Baloch Raaji Aajoi Sangar (BRAS), in Gwadar on a convoy of Oil and Gas Development Corporation Limited (OGDCL), killed 14 people. And in 2019, five were killed in a similar attack on a luxury hotel, also in the city of Gwadar, where Chinese workers were staying.

In 2015, under the Trade and Infrastructure Scheme of the Beijing Center and Roads, China transformed Gwadar from Balochistan into the deepest seaport in the world. The coastal city is now a center of Chinese investment in Pakistan.

Journalist Saleem Mehsud contributed to reports in Islamabad.

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