Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: An explosive-laden vehicle crashed into another vehicle in Bisham tehsil of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Shangla on Tuesday, resulting in the killing of at least six people including five Chinese nationals. According to news agency Reuters, Chinese nationals were killed in an explosion when their convoy was attacked by a suicide bomber in northwest Pakistan.
A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a convoy of Chinese engineers which was on its way from Islamabad to their camp in Dasu in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Mohammad Ali Gandapur, the regional police chief, told the news agency. "Five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver were killed in the attack," Gandapur said.
Bisham Station House Officer (SHO) Bakht Zahir told Dawn.com that the incident was a “suicide blast” and the authorities concerned were collecting the evidence. Security arrangements were tightened at the spot and the bodies were being shifted to a hospital, he further said.
9 Chinese nationals were killed in the same region in 2021
Notably, Dasu is the site of a major dam and the area has been attacked in the past. A blast on a bus had killed 13 people, including nine Chinese nationals, in 2021. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police had reached the spot and started relief operations. The rest of the people in the convoy have been protected, Gandapur said.
Earlier in 2023, Chinese engineers were attacked while their vehicles moving in a convoy in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan. Although local media reports claimed several Chinese nationals were killed, later the police officials said they were only injured. The contradictory statement could be apprehended as a method to hide the actual data amid the fact that Chinese nations were subject to torture in the Balochistan region. China is running a multi-billion CPEC project in Pakistan, undermining the local issues.
This triggered a major confrontation between the local insurgent groups and the Chinese. They believe China is hampering the region and at the same time does not give any benefit to locals.
This is a breaking story. More details will be added.
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