ISLAMABAD: China has appreciated Pakistan’s efforts to bring to justice men who killed 13 people, including nine Chinese nationals, in a bomb attack in the country’s northwest last year, state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) reported on Wednesday.
A Pakistani special court last week handed the death sentence to two men convicted of targeting a bus carrying Chinese engineers close to the Dasu hydroelectric project in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in July 2021.
The Dasu attack frayed relations between Islamabad and Beijing, while Pakistan later paid millions in compensation to the families of the deceased Chinese workers.
On Tuesday, China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters that Pakistan had conducted the probe into the attack with “utmost seriousness and made every effort to get to the bottom of the case.”
“This is much appreciated by China,” Ning said. “Now that the criminals have been held accountable, we know that justice has prevailed and our fellow compatriots who lost their lives in the attack can now rest in peace.”
Rescue workers and onlookers gather around a wreck after a bus plunged into a ravine following a bomb explosion, which killed 12 people including 9 Chinese workers, in Kohistan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on July 14, 2021. (AFP)
She said Beijing will remain supportive of Islamabad’s counterterrorism efforts. Ning hoped the safety of Chinese nationals, institutions and projects in Pakistan “will be duly protected.”
“Protecting the security of overseas Chinese nationals, institutions and projects is of great importance to us, and we have made tremendous efforts in that regard,” she added.
Beijing has lately voiced its concerns about the safety of Chinese nationals working in Pakistan, where it is involved in a huge infrastructure project as part of its Belt and Road Initiative.
The project, known as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), is a network of roads, railways, pipelines and ports that will connect China to the Arabian Sea and help Islamabad expand and modernize its economy.
Militants have often targeted Chinese nationals in Pakistan’s southwestern and southern parts. More recently, a suicide attack killed three Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver in the southern port city of Karachi in April.
Pakistan has repeatedly assured Beijing it will offer the best security to Chinese workers and residents living in the South Asian country.
