Pakistan Army’s media wing on Sunday announced that three terrorists were killed and five people, which include four hotel workers and a Pakistan Navy soldier, were martyred in the attack on a luxury hotel in Gwadar.
In a statement announcing the completion of a clearance operation at Pearl Continental, Gwadar, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) confirmed that six people, which include two army captains, two navy soldiers and two hotel employees, were injured in the attack.
The ISPR said the terrorists attempted to enter the hotel with the aim of targeting or taking guests hostage.
A security guard at the entry point challenged the terrorists and denied them entry into the main hall, forcing them to take a staircase leading to the upper floors. It was in this exchange of fire that a security guard named Zahoor embraced martyrdom.
The attackers kept firing indiscriminately as they ascended the stairs and martyred three hotel employees identified as Farhad, Bilawal and Awais, while two more workers suffered injuries.
The ISPR said Quick Reaction Forces of the army, navy and police immediately reached the hotel to secure and evacuate guests and staff members.
They managed to restrict the terrorists to the corridor of the hotel’s fourth floor and, after ensuring safe evacuation of guests and staff, launched a clearance operation to eliminate the attackers.
The terrorists, as per the ISPR statement, had rendered useless all CCTV cameras on the fourth floor and had planted Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) at all entry points of the floor.
However, the security personnel soon managed to establish special entry points to the floor and shot dead all three terrorists and defused the IEDs.
In this exchange of fire, a Pakistan Navy soldier, Abbas Khan, embraced martyrdom, while two army captains and two navy soldiers were injured.
The statement said the terrorists bodies have been held for identification. It further added that DG ISPR Major General Asif Ghafoor had appreciated Pakistan’s media outlets for their responsible reporting and coverage of the operation.
It said the limited coverage “denied terrorists of possible live updates” and “facilitated security forces in smooth execution of the operation”.
An attack on a luxury hotel in Gwadar was a bid to “sabotage [Pakistan’s] prosperity”, Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Sunday, as authorities confirmed all the attackers had been killed.
At least two security guards were martyred on Saturday after gunmen stormed a luxury hotel in Gwadar – the centrepiece of a multi-billion dollar Chinese infrastructure project.
“Such attempts especially in Balochistan are an effort to sabotage our economic projects and prosperity. We shall not allow these agendas to succeed. Pakistani nation and its security forces shall defeat them all,” PM Imran said in a statement issued by his office.
The Chinese embassy in Islamabad also strongly condemned the incident.
Local police said four gunmen who had stormed the hotel, shooting dead a security guard, had been killed by security forces.
“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. His account was confirmed by a security source in Islamabad.
Mohammad Aslam, a police official in Gwadar, told AFP on Saturday that only staff were present in the building at the time of the attack.
The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the attack. 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.
‘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 now touted by officials as “the next Dubai” thanks to the multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (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 as the plan’s 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.
Balochistan is tightly guarded by the military, who have been targeting insurgents there since 2004.
The attack was the second deadly attack in a prominent city this week, after a suicide blast at one of the country’s oldest and most popular Sufi shrines killed at least 12 people in the eastern city of Lahore.
