On Tuesday, March 26, hours after 6 Chinese citizens were killed in a suicide bombing attack in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, China demanded a speedy and thorough investigation into the incident and severe punishment for the perpetrators. China also asked the Pakistani government to take effective measures to protect the safety of Chinese citizens in the country.
“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,” the embassy said in a statement.
Earlier in the day, at least 6 people including five Chinese nationals were killed in an explosion when their convoy was attacked by a suicide bomber in northwest Pakistan.
Sources claim Terrorist attack on Chinese convey in Bisham area of Shangla, 6 people including 5 Chinese were reported dead..!! pic.twitter.com/Umt3grXyDd
— Khurram Iqbal (@khurram143) March 26, 2024
Mohammad Ali Gandapur, the regional police chief told the media that a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a convoy of Chinese engineers which was on its way from Islamabad to their camp in Dasu, the biggest hydropower project in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan, where they worked..
“Five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver were killed in the attack,” Mohammad Ali Gandapur said.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police had reached the spot and started relief operations. According to Mohammad Ali Gandapur, the remaining members of the convoy are safe.
Today’s incident came less than a week after eight Baluchistan Liberation Army terrorists opened fire on a convoy carrying Chinese citizens outside the Chinese-funded Gwadar port in the volatile southwestern Baluchistan province.
Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has reported such attacks several times before. In fact, since the TTP broke its truce with the government in November 2022, there has been a spike in terrorism in Pakistan, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
Last year on August 31, at least nine soldiers were killed and twenty others were critically injured, as per the latest accounts of a terror attack in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region. The incident took place in the Bannu district when a suicide bomber exploded himself. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), according to the military, was responsible for the terror strike.
On 30 July, a suicide bomber detonated a device during a political party conference leaving at least 54 people dead and over 100 injured. There were more than 400 members and supporters of politician Fazal-ur-Rehman’s Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party present there.
