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- March 26, 2024
- Kainat Shakeel
- 0
Five Chinese nationals and one Pakistani were killed in an attack on a convoy in Bisham tehsil of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Shangla, according to the regional police chief and a station house officer (SHO). China has demanded a “thorough investigation.” The regional police chief, Mohammad Ali Gandapur, was quoted by Reuters as saying that a convoy of Chinese engineers was being driven by a suicide bomber who had crashed an explosives-laden car into them as they were traveling from Islamabad to their camp in Dasu.
“The attack claimed the lives of five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver,” Gandapur stated. After arriving at the location, the provincial police started assisting. According to Gandapur, the remaining members of the convoy are safe. Speaking with the media, Bisham SHO Bakht Zahir also confirmed that six people died in the incident five of them were Chinese engineers and one was Pakistani. He said that the incident was a “suicide blast” and that the relevant authorities were gathering information. He added that the bodies were being moved to a hospital and that security measures had been tightened there.
The SHO declared, “We will look into how and where the suicide bomber’s vehicle came from,” as well as how it happened. Sheraz Khan, the head of Rescue 1122 station, announced that the bodies were being moved to the Bisham Tehsil Headquarters Hospital. The car carrying the Chinese passengers crashed into a ravine and caught fire following the explosion, according to the rescue official. Then, he continued, a rescue team arrived and extinguished the fire.
The Ch inese nationals were identified as four men and a woman, according to Dr. Rehmat Ali, a Dasu project spokesperson, who also said that their bodies were being transported to Islamabad. This information was provided to the media. The embassy of China requested that the attack be looked into. The Chinese consulates and embassy in Pakistan issued a statement stating, “The Chinese side has taken immediate action to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens, including conducting a comprehensive investigation into the attack, punishing the perpetrators severely, and taking practical and effective measures to protect the environment.”
Thirteen people, nine of whom were Chinese nationals, lost their lives in July 2021 when a coach carrying them to the 4,300-megawatt Dasu hydropower project’s under-construction tunnel site exploded and fell into a ravine in the Upper Kohistan region. The government later announced that explosive remnants had been discovered, despite the Foreign Office’s initial claim that the incident was an accident. At the time, the information minister stated that “terrorism could not be ruled out.” Two men were given the death penalty by a Hazara anti-terrorism court in November 2022 after they were found guilty of plotting the attack.