PM Imran slams Gwadar hotel attack as bid to damage economy

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday described yesterday's attack targeting the Gwadar Pearl Continental Hotel as a bid to "sabotage prosperity" in the area, as police confirmed all the attackers had been killed.

The Balochistan Liberation Army had claimed responsibility for the attack in which at least three people were killed and four others injured by a handful of gunmen who stormed the luxury hotel in Gwadar, the centrepiece of the multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Prime Minister Imran in a statement issued by PM Office today said that "such attempts, especially in Balochistan, are an effort to sabotage our economic projects and prosperity. We shall not allow these agendas to succeed".

The Chinese embassy in Islamabad also strongly condemned the incident.

How it happened

Between 4:30pm and 5pm yesterday, four terrorists forced entry into the PC Hotel, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR). The attackers wore uniforms resembling those worn by members of the security forces and were equipped with modern weapons, official sources told Dawn.

They barged into the hotel, took some hotel staffers hostage, and opened fire. A police official had said that there were no guests at the hotel and only local staff was present there. Official sources had also denied rumours about the presence of Chinese and other foreigners in the hotel.

Security guards deployed at the hotel offered resistance but three of them were shot dead by the attackers. Two of the deceased were identified as Rasheed and Zahoor.

Gunshots fired by the assailants also left Anwar, Ali Raza, Jawed and an unidentified man injured, who were later taken to the hospital.

Security forces, including Navy commandos, Army and Frontier Corps troops, rushed to the hotel and launched an operation. Navy helicopters also landed on the roof of the hotel.

The area was cordoned off immediately, and the people inside the hotel were evacuated to safety, the ISPR had said.

The roads leading to Koh-i-Batil, the hill on which the five-star hotel was located, were closed by a heavy contingent of security forces.

The DIG of Makran range, Muneer Ahmed Zia Rao, said that the first, second and third floor of the hotel were cleared, after which attackers took refuge on the fourth floor where a shootout ensued between them and security forces.

The exchange of fire between both parties continued with brief intervals until the four terrorists were killed overnight.

"All four terrorists were killed and security forces had taken complete control of the hotel building," a local police official in Gwadar told AFP via telephone today. His account was confirmed by a security source in Islamabad.

'The next Dubai'

The Pearl Continental, part of Pakistan's largest five-star hotel chain, is the only luxury hotel in Gwadar, frequented by foreign and Pakistani business delegations as well as diplomats.

It sits isolated on a ridge overlooking the Arabian Sea port city that was formerly a small fishing village, but is now touted by officials as "the next Dubai" thanks to CPEC.

Part of China's Belt and Road initiative, CPEC seeks to connect the western Chinese province of Xinjiang with Gwadar, with the development of the port there as a flagship project.

Gwadar will provide China with safer and more direct access to the oil-rich Middle East than the waterway trade route it currently uses through the narrow Malacca Straits.

CPEC has drawn the ire of separatists who complain that Balochistan does not receive its due share of resources from the Centre.

The BLA has targeted Chinese workers in Pakistan multiple times, including during a brazen daylight attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi which killed four people in November last year. At the time, the BLA had branded Beijing "an oppressor".

The attack was the second deadly attack in a prominent city this week, after a suicide blast claimed by a lesser-known faction of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan at the Data Darbar shrine in Lahore, in which 12 individuals lost their lives.