starting Pakistan where gunmen have its
hucked the country's stock exchange in
Karachi killing six people including a
policeman and two guards officials say
all four attackers have been shot dead
militants from the baluchistan
Liberation Army stormed inside the
compound throwing grenades and firing
indiscriminately the police chief has
said the situation is under control all
employees are reported to be safe now
having either managed to get out of the
building or lock themselves in our
correspondent Americas reports from
Lahore this was the scene when four
gunmen armed with sophisticated weapons
stormed the stock exchange building in
Karachi Pakistan financial harbor on a
normal day this building gets up to
8,000 people at the time of attack a
large number of people who were inside
the gunmen entered the premises from a
rear parking lot and made their way to
the main entrance firing
indiscriminately the militants heard a
grenade at the private guards securing
the entrance by the time reinforcements
arrived the guards managed to hold the
gunmen from entering the building though
two of them were killed at the main
gates on the road another one was killed
at the next gate the fourth terrorist
was killed when he tried to enter
through the gate of the main building I
believe the law enforcement agencies
have done a great job as a standard
procedure
the police had research and cleared the
building the officials insist it was
business as usual inside despite and
attacked by insurgents unfolding outside
thank God a huge disaster could have
occurred which has been averted life is
normal markets are open everything is
normal there is no need for any concern
we are totally relaxed a band militant
organization below it's Liberation Army
has claimed responsibility for the
attack VLA is one of the separatist
groups active in Pakistan's restive
village
province the group seeks separation from
Pakistan accusing the government of
usurping their due rights since 2004
they have carried out multiple attacks
against security forces in Pakistan they
were also linked to the attack on
Chinese consulate in Karachi in 2018
that killed four Pakistan's Interior
Minister a Jaa's Shah in a message said
the country's security agencies will
soon get to the masterminds of this
attack Omarion Jana BBC News okay let's
go live now to Karachi and speak to a
Reba Shaheed she's the Business and
Economics journalist for the newspaper
Pakistan today thank you very much
Arriba for joining us just bring us up
to date on the situation on the ground
now is it all calm the stock market it
says the index went down during the
attack and immediately afterwards the
index recovered business as usual the
show must go on
so on a normal day the TSX has around
more than 6,000 people coming in with
the staff itself being suitable numbers
but you discovered 19 the number of
people on premises very low
approximately less than 2,000 people
were there you see the building is
structured into in a way such that the
trading hall is there and I'm talking
the trading hall at our brokerage firm
houses and another building with the
administration reports suggests that
they were supposed to be a meeting of
the board today which the terrorists
right in fact however their plans were
foiled by the law thority so I suppose
the question is why the Pakistan Stock
Exchange economic symbol not only is it
an economic symbol but the Balochistan
Liberation Army that has seemed to take
responsibility for the attack has
previously also attacked is wanted in
2018 and considering sign of interest
within the stock exchange and how
Shanghai Stock Exchange owns or is the
majority shareholder within the stock
market the
you can see why they chose to attack on
the stock exchange that's considering
their their hindrances to works China
and Bethany buck that okay Arriba we'll
have to leave it there thanks very much
for bringing us up-to-date there on the
situation that was a Reba Shaheed
joining us there from Karachi