BEIJING: China on Tuesday urged Pakistan to rapidly bring perpetrators to justice after unidentified gunmen shot at two Chinese nationals in the southern city of Karachi, killing one of them.

The two Chinese were in their car in an upmarket area on Monday when the attackers in another car opened fire on their vehicle, according to police, describing it as an apparent “targeted attack.”

One of the Chinese suffered two bullet wounds to his head and later succumbed to his injuries, the head of the government hospital said.

“The consulate general of China has sent officials to the hospital and urged the police to solve the case as soon as possible and bring the criminals to justice,” foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a regular briefing.

The two Chinese were working for a shipping company.

The man, identified as Chen Zhu, 45, was in his car when he was attacked in an upmarket area of the port city of Karachi.

At least 10 shots were fired at the car and Chen suffered a single bullet wound in the head, police said.

“The incident appears to be targeted attack, (it) doesn’t look like a mugging,” Azad Khan, deputy inspector general of Karachi’s south zone, said.

Chen was the Pakistan general manager of Cosco Shipping Lines Co, a company spokeswoman said, adding that the cause of the attack was unclear.

“The company has taken steps, first to ensure the safety of our staff overseas; secondly to inform the family so that they can go and make funeral arrangements; and thirdly, we immediately contacted the local consulate and embassy to get their assistance,” the spokeswoman said.

Thousands of Chinese engineers and technicians are working in Pakistan.

China is ramping up investment as part of a $54 billion project known as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, upgrading infrastructure, power and transport links between its far-western Xinjiang region and Pakistan’s Gwadar port.

Last October, Pakistan confirmed the death of two Chinese nationals who were kidnapped in the southwestern city of Quetta, months after the Daesh group claimed it had killed them.

When asked whether Beijing was concerned about the safety of its citizens in Pakistan, Geng noted Pakistan’s government and military have taken a series of counterterrorism and social security measures.

“We support Pakistan’s relevant actions to safeguard national security and we believe Pakistan will continue to take measures to safeguard the safety of Chinese institutions and personnel in Pakistan,” Geng said.

Earlier, Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Yao Jing said the Baloch militant organisations are no longer a threat to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), adding that members of banned outfits were “not true Pakistanis.”

In an interview to BBC Urdu, he sounded confident that Gwadar port would soon become one of the world’s trading hubs as the security situation in Pakistan had improved to a large extent in the last few years.

“If they [Baloch militants] are true Pakistanis, they should work in the interest of Pakistan,” he said brushing aside their capacity of becoming a threat to China, Pakistan and their CPEC project.

Yao said he was satisfied with the security provided to about 10,000 Chinese nationals working on different CPEC projects in Pakistan which also has some 60,000 local people on different jobs.

Agencies