The Chinese Embassy also rejected the report, calling it a “smear campaign”
Pakistan has strongly denied a story by an Australian publication alleging that a lab in Wuhan conducting covert operations in the country. The foreign office spokesperson Aisha Farooqui termed the news as a “politically motivated fake story based on anonymous sources”.
“It is a politically motivated and fake story, composed of distortion of facts and fabrications that quote anonymous sources,” Foreign Office Spokesperson Aisha Farooqui said.
Farooqui further clarified that there is “nothing secret” about the Bio-Safety Level-3 (BSL-3) laboratory referred in the report. She further added that as a confidence building measure, Pakistan shared the information about the lab in its States Parties to the Biological and Toxins Weapons Convention (BTWC) submission.
“The facility is meant for diagnostic and protective system improvement by Research and Development on emerging health threats, surveillance and disease outbreak investigation,” she added.
Australian Publication Makes Allegations
An Australian publication by the name of The Klaxon ran an “investigative story” on July 23, claiming that China’s Wuhan Lab was running secret operations in Pakistan under a covert deal with the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DESTO).
The story further suggested that ‘anthrax-like pathogens’ are under development in the lab for possible biological warfare. The reported claimed it was based on “intelligence sources”. The report appears to be based on flimsy grounds and whims of the writer and editor of the story. The half-baked effort may well be an attempt for media attention on the part of involved parties.
Chinese Embassy Reacts
The Chinese Embassy in Islamabad also down played the report totally irresponsible and a smear campaign. A statement by the Embassy said that it “strongly opposes fabricated story on China-Pakistan joint research on Biological weapon”.
“It is totally irresponsible, vicious-intentioned to smear China and Sino-Pak relations,” the Chinese Embassy Tweeted.