ISLAMABAD: Six person including five Chinese engineers were killed when a suicide bomber rammed a vehicle into a convoy of Chinese engineers working on Dasu Hydro Power Project in Shangla Besham on Tuesday.
The engineers were en route from Islamabad to their camp at Dasu dam construction site in the Shangla area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said the Deputy Inspector General (DIG), Mohammad Ali Gandapur said.
“Five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver were killed in the attack,” the DIG said while talking to media. The terrorist attack claimed six lives, police confirmed, was the third major terrorist attack on Chinese interests in a week.
The first two attacks targeted a Pakistan naval air base and a strategic port used by China in Balochistan where Beijing is investing billions in infrastructure projects.
Dasu is the site of a major dam and the area has been attacked in the past. A blast on a bus killed 13 people, including nine Chinese nationals, in 2021.
Chinese engineers have been working on a number of projects in Pakistan with Beijing investing over $65 billion in infrastructure works as part of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) under Beijing’s wider Belt and Road initiative.
No one claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attack and there had been no claim for the 2021 attack.
While Chinese interests are primarily targeted by militants seeking to push Beijing out of mineral-rich Balochistan, they generally operate in the country’s south and southwest – far from the site of Tuesday’s attack.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police have reached the spot and started relief operations.
KP Police officials said the convoy was carrying staff of the construction firm China Gezhouba Group Company (CGGC) working on the Dasu hydropower project – the same company targeted in 2021.
Read more: Shangla Terror Attack: China demands thorough probe; seeks perpetrators’ prosecution
