Pakistan to test DNA of bomber who killed five Chinese nationals

Pakistani authorities will perform DNA testing on the remains of the suicide bomber who rammed his explosive-laden car into a vehicle in the country’s northwest, killing five Chinese nationals and their local driver, officials said on Wednesday.

The attack occurred in Shangla, a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where thousands of Chinese nationals work on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which includes a multitude of mega projects such as road construction, power plants and agriculture. The CPEC is a lifeline for Pakistan’s cashstrapped government, currently facing one of its worst economic crises.

The five were engineers and labourers heading on Tuesday to the Dasu Dam, the biggest hydropower project in Pakistan, where they worked. Their remains were transported to the capital, Islamabad, local police official Altaf Khan said, adding that the deceased had a police escort when the attack happened. China was expected to send its own experts on Wednesday to the attack site to conduct an independent investigation while collaborating with Pakistani authorities.

Security stepped up for Chinese workers

Pakistan ramped up security guarding Chinese engineers building Beijing-linked projects in the nation’s northwest, an official said on Wednesday. This comes a day after the suicide bombing incident.

A high-ranking official from the provincial interior ministry told AFP that at the over twodozen sites hosting Chinese engineers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa security was stepped up. Few days ago, militants attempted to storm offices of the Gwadar deep water port in the southwest, considered a cornerstone of Chinese investment in Pakistan.