Students protest against KU suicide blast

KARACHI:

Students of the Confucius Institute – a centre for learning Mandarin – at the University of Karachi staged a protest on Friday against the suicide bombing attack on three Chinese teachers of the institute.

The students carried placards and Pakistan and China's flags, with slogans of “Pak-China friendship”, “terrorism is unacceptable” and photographs of the deceased on their posters.

PHOTO: EXPRESS

Director of Confucius Institute Professor Dr Nasir Khan and security adviser Muhammad Zubair were also present at the protest.

The students strongly condemned the suicide attack on their teachers and the Pakistani driver inside the university campus, and demanded immediate punishment for the perpetrators.

They asked the university administration to make arrangements to restore their classes and ensure the safety of their teachers as soon as possible, adding that they wanted to continue learning the Chinese language.

Talking to the media, a student said that there are differences between the people of one nation and another, but that does not give anyone the right to hurt the other.

Another student, Isha, said that people talk about CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor) and raise the slogan of Pak-China friendship, this friendship should go beyond learning languages ​​and cultures but is obstructed by terrorism.

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“This obstruction will actually be an obstacle in the way of development of Pakistan,” she added.

Another student of the Confucius Institute, Fatima, stated that it was unthinkable that such an abhorrent attack could be conducted in a place of learning, against innocent facilitators of education. She maintained that everyone should be guaranteed safety in a university, regardless of what they were coming to learn.

Syeda Farwa, a protestor, claimed that it was now the responsibility of the Pakistani government to ensure that the Chinese government were aware that the terrorists were a different, separate entity.

Professor Nasir Khan, strongly condemning the act, said that the terrorism against the Chinese teachers was not acceptable under any circumstances.

Several students were seen embracing each other, teary-eyed over the loss of their teachers.

PHOTO: EXPRESS

Earlier this week, four people – three Chinese nationals and a Pakistani man – were killed in an attack by a female suicide bomber outside the Chinese language centre inside the Karachi University on Tuesday.

Four others, including a Chinese national and Rangers personnel, were also injured in the blast that ripped through a van carrying the university teachers, Karachi police chief Ghulam Nabi Memon told the media at the scene of the attack.

Raja Umar Khattab, the head of the Counter-terrorism Department, confirmed that it was a suicide attack carried out by a woman outside the Confucius Institute.

With additional reporting by Mashael Shah.