UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council (UNSC) has urged all states to cooperate actively with Pakistan and China in investigating the April 26 terrorist attack in Karachi that killed four people.

The suicide bomber, who killed three Chinese teachers and their Pakistani driver at Karachi University’s entrance, was herself a teacher who had enrolled for a master’s degree months before the attack.

Later, a separatist group, the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), claimed responsibility for the blast, saying that the suicide bomber had volunteered for the attack targeting the Chinese.

On Thursday evening, Security Council’s President Barbara Woodward of Britain issued a statement underlining “the need to hold perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism accountable” and to “bring them to justice”.

The council urged all states, in accordance with their obligations under the international law and relevant Security Council resolutions, to cooperate actively with the governments of Pakistan and China, as well as all other relevant authorities” in probing the blast.

China’s UN Ambassador Zhang Jun welcomed the UNSC statement, noting that it “underlines the need to bring those responsible for the heinous attack” to justice.

“The message is clear: acts of terror are unjustifiable, criminal, and must be punished,” he said.

Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Munir Akram also welcomed the UNSC condemnation.

The UNSC statement said that all “members of the Council condemned in the strongest terms the heinous and cowardly terrorist attack” in Karachi.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2022