Karachi University blast: M.Phil suicide bomber was a mother of 2

KARACHI: The suicide bomber who targeted Chinese teachers inside Karachi University was a woman and the Majeed Brigade of the banned Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the attack.

The organization is active in the Baloch areas of Balochistan and most of its operations are carried out under a guerrilla strategy, ie they secretly hit targets and escape.

However, since 2018, the BLA has adopted the same method used by religious extremist organizations, ie launching attacks through suicide bombings.

In 2018, for the first time, the BLA targeted Chinese nationals in a suicide attack.

The suicide car bomb attack on the bus of Chinese engineers working on the Sendak project in the Dalbandin area of ​​Chaghi was carried out by the son of the then BLA chief Aslam Achoo. Since then, the organization has carried out eight such attacks in Karachi, Gwadar, Noshki and Panjgur.

However, this is the first case where a Baloch woman suicide bomber struck a van inside the University of Karachi, killing three Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver.

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The banned Baloch Liberation Army has released a photo of the woman, identified as Shari Baloch alias Barmash. In another photo before the attack, Shari Baloch is seen sitting with her children.

On Twitter, Shari Baloch has described in her profile her educational qualification M.Phil in Education and Masters in Zoology. An acquaintance of Shari Baloch’s family told an international media outlet on condition of anonymity that Shari Baloch belonged to a highly educated and financially prosperous family in the Kech area of ​​Balochistan.

Many members of his family have held or have held high government positions and Shari was the mother of two young children, including a daughter and a son.

Her husband is a dentist while her father is a director in a government agency.

His uncle is a retired professor and Balochi writer who has also written several books.

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Shari Baloch, 30, has been teaching as a science teacher in a government school in Turbat. She moved to Karachi a few months ago. He did B.Ed in 2014, M.Ed in 2018 and then Masters’s in Zoology and then did M.Phil from Allama Iqbal Open University Turbat.

Her family member told that non a member of Shari Baloch’s family was missing persons or associated with the armed organization.

However, during her student days, she was a member of the Baloch Students’ Organization Azad, a separatist-minded student organization, which was banned by the Pakistani government.

Several members of BSO Azad, including the current head of the BLA, Bashir Zeb, later joined the armed groups.