ABBOTTABAD: A Pakistani special court on Friday awarded death sentences to two men after they were found guilty of killing 13 people, including nine Chinese nationals, in a bomb attack in the country’s northwest last year, Pakistani state media reported. 

The attack in July 2021 targeted a bus carrying Chinese engineers close to the Dasu hydroelectric project in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where Chinese and Pakistani workers had been working together for years. 

The Dasu attack frayed relations between Islamabad and Beijing, while Pakistan later paid millions in compensation to the families of the deceased Chinese workers. 

Judge Sajjad Ahmed Jan delivered the verdict in a camp court, established at Central Jail Haripur (CJH), after the completion of the case hearings wherein the two accused were found guilty, Pakistan’s state-run APP news agency reported. 

“The court also imposed Rs40 million fine on the two convicted terrorists, besides awarding them a total of around 800 years of imprisonment, including life imprisonments,” the report read. 

“All the sentences shall run concurrently.” 

The special court ordered the release of four other accused in the case after no evidence was found against them. 

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. 

But Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif late last month assured Beijing that his country would not let anyone damage its friendship with China. 

“Safety and security of Chinese personnel and projects in Pakistan remains our top priority,” PM Sharif wrote in an opinion article, published by China’s Global Times newspaper. 

“The loss of precious Chinese lives in Pakistan is our loss. We would not let anyone to damage our close friendship and strong economic partnership.” 

Sharif said his government would spare no effort to bring the perpetrators of these “reprehensible acts” to justice.