China backs Pak’s counter-terrorism efforts

China will continue to support Pakistan in counter-terrorism operations, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday, after two Chinese nationals were wounded in a shooting in the country’s commercial hub Karachi last week.

China and Pakistan have the determination and ability to thwart all attempts to undermine China-Pakistan relations and make terrorists pay the price, spokesperson Lin Jian told a regular news conference in Beijing.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s railways suspended all train services on Monday to and from a restive southwestern province where a suicide bombing at a train station over the weekend killed 26 people, including soldiers and railway staff.

The train services would be suspended for four days for security reasons, according to a statement from Pakistan Railways.

The attack, claimed by the separatist Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) struck the station in the city of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, on Saturday. At lest 62 people were also wounded in the bombing, officials said.

The provincial government also declared a three-day mourning period in solidarity with the families of the victims and said that security has been stepped up and vowed to hit back “with full force” against the separatists, according to Sarfraz Bugti, the province’s chief minister.

Bugti spoke after meeting Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, who travelled to Quetta on Sunday to be briefed about the situation. Naqvi’s office said in a statement that authorities would “take decisive steps to crush the terrorists” and support the local Balochistan government in dealing with the “scourge of terrorism.” Train services are a major part of Balochistan’s economy — hundreds of people travel to and from Quetta to other parts of the country every day. Trains also transport food and other items.

Saturday’s attack took place when about 100 passengers were waiting for a train to leave the Quetta station for the garrison city of Rawalpindi, police had said. In its claim of responsibility, the separatist BLA said it targeted Pakistani troops.

The attack was the deadliest since August, when separatists killed more than 50 people in multiple coordinated attacks on passengers buses, police and security forces across Balochistan.

Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif had denounced the bombing in a statement, saying those who orchestrated the attack “will pay a very heavy price for it,” adding that security forces were determined to eliminate “the menace of terrorism.”

Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry also condemned the bombing and expressed its condolences to the families of the victims, as did the Russian Embassy in Islamabad.

Agencies