9 Chinese engineers killed in a blast in Pakistan; China demands action

Peshawar/Beijing – At least 13 people were killed in a bomb blast on a bus in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Upper Kohistan. The dead include nine Chinese engineers. The Chinese engineers were working on the Dasu hydropower project, which is a part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project. It was a terrorist attack, claimed Babar Awan, Pakistan’s Parliamentary Affairs Minister. However, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said it was an accident. But China has demanded that Pakistan punish those behind the killings.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry claimed that the bus crashed into a ravine and then exploded. Therefore, Pakistan‘s foreign ministry has tried its best to rule out the possibility of sabotage. But before that, Pakistan’s Parliamentary Affairs Minister Babar Awan announced that this was a terrorist attack. Awan denounced it as a cowardly attack and said, ‘Even after this attack, cooperation between Pakistan and China will not be disrupted’. However, it was clear that Pakistan had not taken a clear stand as to whether it was an accident or sabotage. But China seems to be looking at it as a threat.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian has strongly condemned the incident after accepting that there was a bomb blast. He called on Pakistan to crack down on the perpetrators and to do more to protect Chinese citizens, institutions and projects. The Chinese embassy in Pakistan has also said that China’s projects in Pakistan are critical and advised Chinese citizens not to go out unless they need to. However, the attack has once again brought the question of the safety of Chinese nationals in Pakistan on the anvil.

The CPEC project between China and Pakistan is not currently operational. This is because the two countries are facing sharp differences over the project. The people of Pakistan are demanding that the government should disclose exactly how much their country is benefiting from these Chinese projects. It is not yet clear whether China has invested in Pakistan through this project or has lent the money to Pakistan. Hence, there were reports that China demanded repayment of the loan given to Pakistan for the project. In such a scenario, there is a strong possibility that locals in Pakistan are behind the attack on Chinese engineers. However, the details have not come to light.

A bomb blast at a hotel in Balochistan in April was an attempt to target the Chinese ambassador to Pakistan. The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had claimed responsibility for the attack.