Terrorist attack at the biggest stock exchange in Pakistan

The Karachi stock exchange, Pakistan's biggest, was attacked yesterday by a group of militants armed with machine guns and grenades, an incident in which the attackers and members of the security personnel, as well as a policeman, were killed, foreign media reports.

The attack took place around 10:00 local time, when four gunmen, disguised as police officers, entered the parking lot in front of the stock exchange building with a sedan vehicle and threw grenades at the main gate, according to police, who added that the terrorists fired upon the people present on location, without a specific target. Following a shootout, all terrorists were killed. Police found AK-47 rifles, hand grenades and other explosives on them. Before the terrorists were killed, four security guards and a sub-inspector of police were killed in the incident, according to the announcement made by the Karachi police.

The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) claimed the attack, according to Associated Press. This is considered the biggest terrorist organization in Pakistan, Great Britain and the US. BLA, the biggest and oldest insurgency group in Asia, is the armed division of Balochistan separatist movement.

Pakistani police say yesterday's attack was the worst in Karachi's financial center in two years.

Accordig to Bloomberg, Farrukh Khan, chief executive of the Karachi Stock Exchange, said, according to Bloomberg, the attackers were prevented from entering the institution.

Abid Ali Habib, a shareholder of the Karachi Stock Exchange and executive director of Aba Ali Habib Securities Pvt., which is headquartered in the stock exchange building, said: "There was heavy firing. We decided to shut our offices' doors, and preventing anyone entering or exiting". About 150 employees who were in the building during the attack barricaded themselves in their offices, according to Abid Ali Habib.

The administration urged the people in the building to take shelter on the upper floors, until the situation has calmed down.

Officials of the exchange also said, on the institution's Twitter account: "Management, with the help of the security teams, is handling and in control of the situation".

The Karachi Stock Exchange is located in the financial center of the city, where all the major banks and financial services companies reside, which means the areas is heavily guarded.

According to thenews.com.pk, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan condemned the attack on the Pakistan Stock Exchange and praised the efforts of security agencies and the courageous manner in which they intervened in the incident.

The head of the Sindh province's administration, Murad Ali Shah, also condemned the incident, requesting a detailed report of what happened. In his opinion, "the country's enemies want to exploit the difficult situation created by the pandemic".

It should be noted that Imran Ismail, governor of the Sindh Pakistani province, said he had urged the General Inspectorate of Police and security agents to capture the militants alive. He added: "We must protect the Sindh province at all costs."

Omer Ahmed Bokhari, head of the Sindh Rangers paramilitary forces, said the attackers intended to enter the building and take hostages. All of them were armed. He added: "The stock market is an important symbol of economic activity, so the goal of the militants was to kill as many people as possible and take hostages. It was an attempt to send a message to the world that Pakistan is not a "The attackers wanted to destroy Pakistan 's economic activity and affect investor confidence."

Ikram Sehgal, a former military officer and chairman of Pathfinder Group, Pakistan's largest private security company, also said, according to Geo TV, that Pakistani authorities had found bullets and food in the terrorists. "It seems that the attackers were planning to take hostages, an action that has been prevented. There will be many more such attacks."

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) was established in January 2016, when the Government of Pakistan decided to merge three major stock markets in the country into a combined entity. The market thus has trading platforms in Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore. The Karachi platform dates from September 18, 1947.

The stock exchange building attacked yesterday has two main wings: one that houses the market management and one that is the headquarters of the brokerage houses. After the incident, the security agents evacuated the building for controls, looking to detect the possible presence of other attackers. Subsequently, the activity of the stock exchange returned to normal.

The KSE 100 index of the Karachi market closed yesterday at 34,181.80 points, a up 0.7% over the end of last week.