Suicide Bombing Kills 5 Chinese Nationals in Pakistan
Police in northern Pakistan said Tuesday that at least five Chinese nationals and their local driver were killed when a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into their convoy. The attack occurred on the main highway linking Pakistan to China. Local police officer Bakht Zahir told VOA an investigation into the ‘suicide blast’ was underway. No group immediately claimed responsibility for one of the deadliest attacks on Chinese nationals in recent years. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the attack and conveyed his condolences to the victims’ families and the government in neighboring China. ’Forces hostile to Pakistan will never succeed in damaging the Pakistan-China friendship,’ Zardari said. The victims were traveling to the Chinese-funded Dasu hydropower project under construction in the district of Kohistan when the bomber coming from the opposite side hit them. In a statement, the Chinese embassy in Islamabad demanded that the Pakistani government immediately conduct a thorough investigation into the deadly bombing. This is not the first time Chinese nationals have come under attack in the mountainous region. In mid-2021, a suicide car bombing targeted a bus convoy of Chinese engineers working on the biggest hydropower project in Pakistan, killing nine Chinese nationals and three of their local co-workers. Thousands of Chinese engineers and laborers are working in Pakistan. Most of them are associated with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, or CPEC, which is an extension of Beijing’s global Belt and Road Initiative infrastructure program. Tuesday’s attack came a day after separatist insurgents stormed Pakistan’s second-largest naval aviation base in southwestern Baluchistan province. The military said that security forces killed all four assailants and a Pakistani soldier died in the ensuing clashes.
A map of Pakistan locating the Dasu dam site in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.