Pakistan’s interior minister did not say who killed two Chinese citizens who were abducted last month. ISIS had claimed responsibility.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Two Chinese citizens abducted last month in southwestern Pakistan have been killed, a senior Pakistani official said on Monday, though he did not indicate who was responsible for their killings.
The official, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, said in a statement that the Chinese couple — Lee Zing Yang, 24, and Meng Li Si, 26 — had been kidnapped in the city of Quetta on May 24 by unknown gunmen.
He said they were in the country on legally issued business visas, but he suggested there were reports that they may have been proselytizing in an area of predominantly Muslim Pakistan where Islamist militants are active.
Last week, the Islamic State claimed that its fighters had kidnapped and killed Mr. Lee and Ms. Meng, according to statement issued by the extremist group’s news agency, Amaq.
The presence of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, in Pakistan is a delicate subject for the government, which has long downplayed the group’s activities in southwest Pakistan despite new attacks.
Last month, the Islamic State said it had carried out a suicide bombing in Mastung, in the same province where the Chinese couple was abducted, that killed at least 25 people and injured 30, including Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, deputy chairman of the Pakistani Senate.
At the beginning of this month, Pakistani troops operating in the same area killed 12 militants with an extremist group seeking to establish an ISIS foothold in the province, the military said.
It was after that operation that ISIS said it had killed the Chinese couple, though Pakistani military officials put pressure on the news media not to publicize the ISIS claim until the government could confirm the couple were dead. Almost all newspapers in the country, many of which observe self-censorship when it comes to reporting on sensitive national security issues, complied with the military’s orders.
The killing of the Chinese couple comes at a time when China is expanding its outreach in Pakistan under a multibillion dollar economic cooperation initiative known as One Belt, One Road, which includes joint infrastructure and industrial projects.
A number of Chinese have been traveling to Pakistan for this initiative, also known as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. There are growing concerns over the security of foreigners working on the venture.
Mr. Khan, the interior minister, said in his statement on Monday that the two Chinese who were killed had been acting as missionaries, even though they were in the country on business visas, ostensibly to learn Urdu at a technology institute owned by a Korean businessman in Quetta.
The minister said that while the government was trying to ensure security for foreigners in Pakistan, the “visiting foreigners were equally bound to abide by the terms and conditions of their visas and inform local authorities about their movements and activities.”
At least 70,000 visas were issued to Chinese nationals last year, according to the Pakistani interior ministry. “This year, in the first five months, at least four to five thousand visas have already been issued to the Chinese, ” said Sarfraz Hussain, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry.
