Chinese consulate attack sparks widespread Indian media reports

DELHI: Friday’s attack of the Chinese consulate in Karachi sparked front-page coverage in most of India’s national dailies.
The country’s highest-circulating English language newspaper, Times of India, carried the headline: “Baloch suicide squad kills four at Chinese consulate in Karachi.”
It reported that a “Baloch separatist group stormed the Chinese consulate…killing four people before they were shot dead.”
The daily said the Baloch Liberation Army, an insurgent group that has been fighting the Pakistani state for over a decade, considers the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor an “illegal occupation of resources rich Balochistan.”
The Indian Express devoted five columns to the attack, highlighting India’s condemnation of it and the security risks for China.
“With infrastructure projects worth $60 billion under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Chinese interests in Pakistan are possibly at an all-time high.”
“New Delhi’s swift condemnation of the attack is significant, given Pakistani allegations of India support to the Baloch insurgency, as well as diplomatic sensitivity ar0und India’s refusal to be the part of the BRI.”
Although Chinese interests had been previously targeted in Pakistan, the consulate raid was “the most significant attack of its kind in years.”
The Hindustan Times, the second-highest circulating English daily, gave prominent coverage to the attack. It also said the Pakistani government “might try to pin this attack on the BLA to justify a military operation against Baloch militants.”
The English daily, DNA, said the attack could mar China-Pakistan ties.
“The incident is the second major attack this year on Chinese officials in Karachi, a megacity in a country that is one of the key partners in China’s Belt and Road Initiative.”

Chinese consulate attack sparks widespread Indian media reports