Beijing backs Pakistan to bring perpetrators of attack on Chinese nationals to justice

Security officials inspect the wreckage of a vehicle which was carrying Chinese nationals that plunged into a deep ravine off the mountainous Karakoram Highway after a suicide attack near Besham city in the Shangla district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on March 26, 2024. (AFP)

• Five Chinese nationals were killed on Tuesday in northwestern Pakistan when a bomber targeted their vehicle 
• Pakistan has since then enhanced security for Chinese personnel in the country, vowed to punish culprits of the attack

ISLAMABAD: China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian said on Thursday his government believes Islamabad will hold accountable the perpetrators of a deadly attack on Chinese nationals in Pakistan this week, vowing that Beijing was ready to step up cooperation with the international community against militancy. 
Five Chinese nationals and their Pakistan driver were killed on Tuesday in Shangla, located in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, when a bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into their vehicle. 
The attack occurred in an area vital to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which encompasses various mega projects crucial for Pakistan’s economy. The victims were en route to Dasu Dam, Pakistan’s largest hydropower project, when they were targeted. 
“The Pakistani side is working intensively to investigate and handle the aftermath and has taken concrete steps to enhance security for Chinese personnel, projects and institutions,” Jian told reporters during a press briefing. 
“We believe Pakistan will get to the bottom of the attack and bring the perpetrators to justice as soon as possible.”
No group had claimed responsibility for the attack but suspicion was likely to fall on separatists and the breakaway Gul Bahadur faction of the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, and is a separate group, but a close ally of the Afghan Taliban.
The TTP denied being behind the suicide bombing in a statement Wednesday, saying: “We are in no way related to the attack on the Chinese engineers.”
Tuesday’s attack came less than a week after Pakistani security forces killed eight Balochistan Liberation Army separatists who opened fire on a convoy carrying Chinese citizens outside the Chinese-funded Gwadar port in the volatile southwestern Balochistan province.