FO rejects news of secret Wuhan lab conducting operations in Pakistan

Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected an Australian news outlet’s report alleging that a Wuhan lab has been conducting alleged covert operations in Pakistan as “politically motivated and fake”. The Klaxon report, quoting unnamed “intelligence experts”, claims China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology has “set up operations in Pakistan as part of a broader offensive against India and Western rivals”.

“The secret facility is allegedly making anthrax-like pathogens which could be used in biological warfare,” the report published on July 23 alleges.

“It is composed of distortion of facts and fabrications that quote anonymous sources,” said a statement issued by the ministry, through the office of the Foreign Office spokesperson.

“There is nothing secret about the Bio-Safety Level-3 (BSL-3) Laboratory of Pakistan referred to in the report,” said the statement by Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “The facility is meant for diagnostic and protective system improvement by Research and Development (R&D) on emerging health threats, surveillance and disease outbreak investigation”.

Source: Dawn