The United States administration has reiterated its condemnation of the Karachi university van blast, where four people including three Chinese nationals were killed, and termed terrorist attacks at universities or religious sites a “true affront to mankind”.

“We strongly condemned the terrorist attack against Karachi University, a university in Pakistan. We reiterate that condemnation today,” US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a press briefing on Wednesday.

“A terrorist attack anywhere is an affront to humanity everywhere.”

In the wake of the incident, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has also expressed resolve to investigate the terrorist attack on Chinese nationals expeditiously and take the culprits to the task. Moreover, President Arif Alvi was of the view that hostile elements behind the incident tried to sabotage the multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project.

The Chinese administration has also maintained that the blood of the Chinese people should not be shed in vain and those behind the incident “will surely pay the price”. The KU van blast has apparently exposed the security of the varsity where half of the CCTV cameras do not work.

Price had also answered the query pertaining to the US security assistance to Pakistan

“When it comes to your question, what I’ll say is that we value our bilateral relationship. We want to continue to work together in areas where we do have mutual interests with our Pakistani partners. That includes counterterrorism. That includes border security as well,” the spokesperson said.

To another query over India’s inclusion into US Commission on Religious Freedom, Price said the USCIRF was an independent commission and not a governmental entity. It does provide recommendations and guidance to the US government, he added.

“It is something that we look at closely as we evaluate conditions of religious freedom or lack thereof around the world,” he said, “I have no doubt that our experts in our Office of International Religious Freedom will take a close look at the report that USCIRF has submitted as they prepare for our determinations and our findings when it comes to religious freedom around the world.”

The question was raised after many media reports on the risk to religious freedom in India where the Hijab controversy was the latest in addition to attacks against Muslims and other minorities.