Pakistani student stabbed to death by Chinese motorist in Nanjing

A 26-year-old Pakistani student at Nanjing Normal University, identified by Times of Islamabad as Moiz-ud-Din, was stabbed to death after a roadside dispute on Monday, July 11, according to Nanjing police.

Surveillance camera footage shows the victim standing curbside near a cigarette factory, reportedly with his girlfriend, when he is confronted by a scooterist, reportedly a 28-year-old Chinese man from Heilongjiang Province.

The two men are seen quarreling — the exact cause is unknown — before the Chinese man crosses the street. After about two minutes, he returns with a knife and attacks Moiz. The two men skirmish — a third man is seen trying to interject, apparently as peacemaker — before Moiz receives several violent blows and collapses on the sidewalk.

The victim was taken to a local hospital, where he died of his injuries.

According to Times of Islamabad, Moiz was enrolled in a Chinese language program at Nanjing Normal University, where he had been studying on a Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC) scholarship since 2017.

The assailant has been arrested, and the investigation is ongoing, local police said in an announcement (in Chinese).

According to the Pakistani paper The Nation (which renders the victim’s name as Moiz Uddin), the Pakistan Embassy in Beijing and its Consulate General in Shanghai are cooperating with Chinese authorities to investigate the murder. “We would like to inform all Pakistanis that [the] Pakistan Embassy in Beijing and the consulate general in Shanghai are in active coordination with Chinese authorities who are conducting an investigation into the incident,” according to an official statement issued on Thursday.

On Chinese social media, internet users are divided over the incident. Because the victim was a foreigner, many have raised the issue of perceived differences in how foreigners and locals are treated, particularly the widespread belief that foreigners believe themselves superior.

In an attempt to push back against the trolls, Beijing News published a video commentary (in Chinese) today in which the commenter says: “The uproar triggered by the incident is predictable, since the news contains some elements that are likely to ignite extreme reactions on today’s internet, such as the fact that it was an altercation between a foreigner and a Chinese, the victim’s nationality, his cultural background, and his girlfriend potentially being Chinese…Trolls are using this news as an outlet to unleash their anger toward foreigners, but this is entirely unbecoming.”

Below is video of the incident. (Warning: Violent and disturbing.)