After five Chinese citizens were killed in a suicide attack in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa yesterday, a security official in Pakistan said on Wednesday, March 27 (the 8th of March) that he had killed a Chinese citizen in the northwest of the country. Security measures have been increased for engineers who are engaged in the construction of projects related to Beijing.
Beijing is Islamabad’s closest regional ally and Pakistan has benefited from billions of dollars of Chinese investment in recent years, but has failed to guarantee the safety of Chinese workers in the country.
In Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, on Tuesday, March 26 (Wari 7), five Chinese citizens were killed when a suicide bomber targeted their car.
These Chinese nationals were on their way to Islamabad from the site of a power dam construction project when an explosion occurred near Bisham city.
A senior official of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa told the French news agency on Wednesday that the security measures of dozens of Chinese engineers’ workplaces in this province have been increased.
He said on condition of anonymity: “All security agencies have been instructed to strengthen the security of Chinese citizens and all other foreigners. Foreign citizens have also been instructed to limit their movements.”
Federal Minister of Information Attaullah Tarar told a press conference in Islamabad that all security procedures will be reviewed.
So far, no group has claimed responsibility for this attack, but Chinese citizens are often killed in militant attacks in Pakistan.
Regional police officer Bakht Zahir said that among the five engineers killed near Basham city, four men and one woman are included.
He said: “The suicide bomber detonated his car in the middle of the convoy of Chinese engineers, which caused the car of these engineers to fall to a depth of 55 meters and catch fire.”
In a statement late on Tuesday, the spokesman of the Pakistani extremist Taliban, which has armed activities in the northwestern region of Pakistan, denied the involvement of the group in the attack on the Chinese engineers.
China has invested billions of dollars in Pakistan through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project as part of its “One Belt and One Road” initiative.
Since 2015, power plants, ports and transport projects have been under construction by joint teams of Pakistan and China in remote areas of the South Asian country.
While Chinese workers are constantly being targeted by foreign-influenced militants, on the other hand, some Pakistanis complain that they are not benefiting enough from these big projects.
Tuesday’s attack came just days after militants attempted to attack offices in the southwestern port of Gwadar, considered a hub for Chinese investment in Pakistan.
This angered the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad to such an extent that Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Interior offered their condolences immediately after the attack.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared China and Pakistan as “steel friends”, but asked Pakistan to “take effective measures to protect Chinese citizens, projects and institutions.”