Attack on Chinese consulate 'not surprising': Imran Khan

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said the attack at a Chinese consulate in Karachi on Friday (November 23) was "not surprising".

Three suicide attackers stormed the consulate amid a series of gunshots and an explosion, but were killed before they could get into the building in a car packed with explosives, police said.

At least two police officers were killed in the attack, which was claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), a separatist insurgent group that opposes Chinese projects in the resource-rich southwestern province of Baluchistan. All Chinese staff at the consulate were safe, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and China's Foreign Ministry said.

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The assault was the most prominent attack in Pakistan against China, a neighbour and close ally which is pouring billions of dollars into Pakistan as part of its Belt and Road initiative. It was also the highest-profile operation in years by the BLA, which mostly wages a low-level insurgency in Baluchistan. The group also calls itself the Balochistan Liberation Army.