Beijing, Dec 28:
China on Wednesday said terrorism is the common enemy of humanity and it stands for strengthening counterterrorism cooperation among all countries to jointly fight all forms of the menace.
“China firmly opposes double standards on counterterrorism. To support and use terrorist groups and let them thrive out of one’s selfish interests at the expense of international and regional security benefits no one and will only backfire,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a media briefing here.
She was reacting to a question on the reports of the surrender of a Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) commander to Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI last week.
“Terrorism is humanity’s common enemy…China stands for strengthening counterterrorism cooperation among all countries to jointly fight all forms of terrorism,” Mao said.
Besides alleging India’s backing to the organisation, the surrendered BLA commander, Sarfraz Bungulzai, has also accused the Taliban’s interim government in Afghanistan of supporting separatist outfits and providing them hideouts and extending other help, according to a report in Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper.
Quoting Bungulzai, the Dawn report said that BLA chief Bashir Zeb is currently in Afghanistan.
BLA is opposed to Chinese investments in Balochistan and has been accusing Beijing and Islamabad of exploiting the resource-rich province. The outfit has carried out numerous attacks in Pakistan, including suicide bomb blasts targeting Chinese workers employed in a host of projects in the USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) connecting Gwadar port in Balochistan with China’s Xinjiang province.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has flagged concerns over the attacks on Chinese nationals in his meetings with Pakistan leaders in recent years.
With recurring attacks, Beijing had reportedly asked Islamabad to permit China’s security agencies to protect Chinese workers in Pakistan. The attacks continued despite Pakistan forming a special brigade of the army to provide security for the Chinese workers.
Pakistan is also facing recurring attacks from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which Islamabad alleges is backed by the Afghanistan Taliban, ironically the very militant group it has nurtured for decades and installed in Kabul.
Significantly, China has recently accorded diplomatic recognition to the interim Taliban government, notwithstanding strident allegations from Beijing’s all-weather ally Pakistan that the Taliban is backing the TTP.
