After the fight between Pakistani armed forces and Islamic militants in the Red Mosque area of Islamabad, Islamic terrorists in the Northwest provice and Baluchistan have been carrying out suicide bomb attacks.
It looks like the terrorists are targeting Chinese citizens who are working on various engineering projects in Pakistan. It is not clear whether they are the only foreigners in the area, and thus are being targetted or whether they are targeting in particular.
51 killed in suicide bombing in Pak
In the southwestern industrial town of Hub, a suicide car bomber earlier blew himself up as a convoy of Chinese citizens and security forces passed by, killing at least 30 Pakistanis but no Chinese nationals, officials said.
A brief history of Pakistan-China relationship below the fold.
Pakistan and China have a close relationship with co-operation is a range of fields, mostly stemming from their military co-operation. As they say, enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Pakistan's enmity with India is well documented and well known. See my first diary for some details. Chinese Indian enmity is less well known.
China and India had good - or what Indian administration assumed to be good - relationship until 1964. There had been some border dispute between the two countries - but what happened in 1964 was unexpected. China launched a war on India to settle the border dispute. Indian army was caught unaware. When the war was over China had occupied quite a bit of Indian land - though mostly uninhabited. The mighty Himalayas that had kept the Asian neighbors at an arms distance thought history was no longer enough to prevent wars. Ever since the 1962 war, the relationship between India and China has been sliding between tense and cool.
The biggest co-operation between Pakistan and China was in the nuclear field. It is well known that the Chinese helped Pakistan build its nuclear capability. How Pakistan's Khan sold nuclear technologies to Iran, Libya etc is ofcourse, well known.
A Brief History of Pakistan's Nuclear Program
Now Chinese help Pakistan in various engineering projects - many of them in Baluchistan, where the suicide bombing took place.
China has a large (in numbers) Muslim minority which is tightly controlled. Every aspect of their religion is controlled by the government - to the extent that children are barred from mosques.
Muslim voices rising in China
To dissuade Uighur youths from inheriting their traditional Islamic culture, the government has banned children from entering mosques, studying Islam, or celebrating Islamic holidays.
In recent years, militant Islam is slowly causing uneasiness and violence in China. East Turkestan Islamic Movement is designated as a terrorist organization by the state dept. Many chinese youths are speculated to have been trained in Afghanistan before 9/11.
It would be interesting to see how this new twist will affect relationship between China and Pakistan. May be China will learn that helping Pakistan armed forces will come with some cost ...