Armed men pretending to be policemen kidnapped two Chinese language teachers in the Pakistani city of Quetta on Wednesday, provincial officials said, a rare attack on Chinese nationals that is likely to worry Beijing.
China has pledged to invest $57 billion in Pakistani road, rail and power infrastructure in a flagship project of its vast Belt and Road initiative for a network of modern-day "Silk Road" routes connecting Asia with Europe and Africa.
China's ambassador to Pakistan and other officials have often urged Islamabad to improve security, especially in the province of Baluchistan, where China is building a new port and funding roads to link its western regions with the Arabian Sea.
"A Chinese couple has been kidnapped," Kakar told Reuters, adding that officials had earlier mistaken the wounded passerby for a security guard.
No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, but in the past Islamist militant groups have kidnapped foreigners in Pakistan to seek ransom or drum up publicity for their cause.
China's embassy in Islamabad confirmed two of its nationals had been kidnapped, Chinese state news agency Xinhua said.
China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment sent after office hours.
Another Chinese woman narrowly evaded the kidnappers outside a language centre in Jinnah, on the city's outskirts, he added.
The numbers of Pakistanis studying Mandarin has skyrocketed since 2014, when President Xi Jinping signed off on the vast CPEC funding plans.
Pakistan faces pressure to keep Chinese workers safe and reassure Beijing about its vast investments, said Vahaj Ahmed, a research analyst at investment bank Exotix Partners.
But the Quetta kidnappings were unlikely to "put the Chinese interests off track," he added.
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