Karachi: Four heavily armed separatist gunmen stormed PSX Karachi, Pakistan’s biggest stock exchange which houses offices for hundreds of financial institutions and is located in a high-security zone, killing seven people and wounding several others before being gunned down.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), an ethnic insurgent group, owned up to the attack. The staff working inside the PSX building said they heard heavy gunfire and explosions when the attackers, armed with assault rifles, hand grenades and other explosives, entered the complex. Two of them managed to enter the parking area before all of them were killed. None could enter the main building, police said. The chief of Sindh Rangers, a paramilitary force, claimed the terrorists had planned to take hostages as they were carrying food and water supplies. Foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi alleged India was involved in the attack. India described it as “absurd comments”.
Police said, “The gunmen hurled grenades at the main gate to the building and opened indiscriminate fire but they failed to enter the building." They added that the staff inside locked themselves into rooms and many were evacuated. “The attackers came in a silver Toyota Corolla and were stopped by the police at the gate outside where the exchange of fire took place," said Ghulam Nabi Memon, additional IG, Sindh police.
Witnesses working inside the PSX building said they heard heavy gunfire and explosions when the attackers entered the complex. "We were all terrified," said Abid Habib, PSX’s director "There was gunfire and suddenly everyone was rushing to the windows to see what was happening. As the firing was close by, everyone was scared and we closed our outside doors," Habib said.
Video footage of the attack showed four assailants getting out of a car and taking up positions at a security barrier to the building, firing at security guards. PSX Karachi, Pakistan’s biggest stock exchange, has offices for hundreds of financial institutions and is situated in the city’s high security zone along with the head offices of banks and other businesses.
Several thousand people work at PSX on a normal day but numbers were low because many were working from home due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Balochistan, a resource-rich region, has seen a decades-long rebellion by the Baloch ethnic minority for independence.
Efforts by the Pakistani security forces to put down the insurgency have led to disappearances and widespread accusations of abuses. In recent years, the group has targeted Chinese interests in Balochistan, a centre for huge development projects that are part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Separatist militants in Balochistan oppose Chinese investment, saying it is of little benefit to local people.
