India rejects Pakistani accusations of involvement in Chinese consulate attack in Karachi

India has rejected as "fabricated and scurrilous" accusations that its intelligence agency was involved in a November terrorist attack on the Chinese consulate in the Pakistan’s southern city of Karachi.

Karachi police chief Ameer Sheikh said on Friday that Islamabad had arrested a number of Indian suspects for their alleged involvement in the attack on the Chinese diplomatic mission on November 23, which killed four people.

Shaikh claimed that the attack had been planned in “Afghanistan” and executed with the help of India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) intelligence agency.

The police official also said the detainees were linked to the separatist Pakistani group, the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), which  claimed responsibility for the attack at the time.

"The aim was to sabotage the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and create the impression in China that Karachi is not safe," Shaikh said.

The attackers were driving a car filled with explosives but failed to get inside the heavily fortified compound of the Chinese mission before being killed by security forces. Two policemen and two civilians were also killed in an exchange of fire with the terrorists.

"We have seen statements in the Pakistani media attributed to the police chief of Karachi making false allegations against India for the terrorist attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi in November, 2018. We completely reject these fabricated and scurrilous attempts to levy accusations on India,” the Indian Foreign Ministry said in reaction to the Pakistani claims on Friday.

“Instead of maliciously pointing fingers at others for such terrorist incidents, Pakistan needs to look inwards and undertake credible action against support to terrorism and terror infrastructure in its territories,” it added.

PressTV-Militants attack China consulate, kill dozens in Pakistan

Assailants strapped with explosives attack the Chinese consulate in Karachi, while a bomber drives his motorcycle into a festival at a crowded market in northwest Pakistan, killing at least 25 people.

The Indian foreign ministry condemned the terrorist attack on the Chinese consulate and said such strikes only "strengthened the resolve of the international community to combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations."

China, which neighbors Pakistan, is a close ally and the country's main benefactor. It launched a project on the Pakistani port under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) back in 2015  to connect the port of Gwadar on Pakistan's south coast to China’s Xinjiang via a vast network of highways and railways.

India has opposed the CPEC as it passes through the New Delhi-controlled region of Kashmir.

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since the two gained independence from British rule in 1947. More than 70,000 people have died since an armed battle against Indian rule began in 1989.

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