Beijing seeks ‘thorough investigation’ after 5 Chinese nationals killed in Pakistan

PM Sharif visits Chinese Embassy after bombing, pledges speedy investigation

China on Tuesday sought a “thorough investigation” from the Pakistani government into a suicide bombing that killed five Chinese nationals working on a dam project in the South Asian country’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Beijing’s embassy in Islamabad said.

A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a convoy of Chinese engineers that was on its way from Islamabad to a camp in Dasu, the site of a major dam project, Bakht Zahir, a local police officer in the Shangla district where the attack took place, told Arab News.

He said the five Chinese nationals killed were construction workers and engineers. The Pakistani driver of the vehicle was also killed in the attack.

The attack is being widely seen as an attempt to undermine a relationship on which Islamabad’s financial survival largely depends as Beijing is investing over $65 billion in energy, infrastructure and other projects in Pakistan as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor under its wider Belt and Road initiative. Hundreds of Chinese engineers and technicians work on the projects, many of which are based in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and southwest Balochistan provinces. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa borders Afghanistan and has been the site of renewed attacks by militants, mainly the Pakistani Taliban, in recent years. Attacks by separatist militants in Balochistan have also been on the rise.

“The Chinese Embassy and consulates in Pakistan have immediately launched emergency work, demanding that the Pakistani side conduct a thorough investigation into the attack, severely punish the perpetrators, and take practical and effective measures to protect the safety of Chinese citizens,” Beijing’s embassy in Islamabad said.

In a separate statement, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif pledged that his government would “conduct a high-level and early investigation of the incident and punish the perpetrators and facilitators.”

The statement from PM Sharif ’s office, which was released shortly after he visited the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad and met Ambassador Jiang Zaidong following the attack, said: “The sympathies of the entire nation, including myself, are with the families of the Chinese citizens.” Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, who accompanied Sharif, described the incident as an “attack on Pakistan itself.” No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, which is the third major attack in Pakistan in a week.

AP Tragic incident A container ship rammed into a major bridge in Baltimore early Tuesday, causing it to snap and plunge into the river below. Several vehicles fell into the chilly waters, and rescuers were searching for survivors.

AFP Security officials inspect the wreckage of a vehicle which was carrying Chinese nationals that plunged into a deep ravine off the mountainous Karakoram Highway after a suicide attack near Besham city in the Shangla district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Tuesday.