ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi on Friday briefed a Chinese investigation team on a suicide attack in Pakistan’s Shangla, which killed five Chinese nationals this week, promising to bring to justice the perpetrators of the deadly bombing.
Five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver were killed on Tuesday in the northwestern Pakistani district of Shangla, when a bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into their vehicle.
The victims were en route to a hydropower project when the attack occurred in an area vital to the Chine-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), part of Beijing Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Naqvi visited the Chinese embassy in Islamabad to brief the special investigation team that arrived from China, according to the Pakistani interior ministry.
“In the meeting, measures for the protection of Chinese citizens and overall security were discussed,” Naqvi’s ministry said in a statement. “The real culprits of the Shangla attack will be brought to justice,” the statement quoted the minister as saying.
Naqvi also met the Chinese ambassador and shared with him updates regarding the attack, according to the statement.
Tuesday’s attack came less than a week after Pakistani security forces killed eight Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) separatists, who opened fire on a convoy carrying Chinese citizens outside the Chinese-funded Gwadar port in the volatile southwestern Balochistan province.
Hundreds of Chinese engineers and technicians have been working on projects, primarily in Pakistan’s northwest and southwest, under CPEC — a network of roads, railways, pipelines and ports in Pakistan that will connect China to the Arabian Sea and help Islamabad expand and modernize its economy.
Beijing has pledged to invest over $65 billion in energy and infrastructure projects in Pakistan as part of the corridor.
The interior minister’s meeting with the Chinese team came a day after Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said his government believed Islamabad would hold accountable the perpetrators of the deadly attack.
“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,” Lin 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.”