PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Five Chinese nationals were killed in an explosion when their convoy was attacked by a suicide bomber in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, a senior police officer said.
A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the convoy of Chinese engineers that was on its way from Islamabad to their camp in the Shangla area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Mohammad Ali Gandapur, the regional police chief, told Reuters.
“Five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver were killed in the attack,” Gandapur said.
Another police officer in the region, Naveed Ahmed, said the foreign citizens were heading to Dasu in a convoy of at least 12 vehicles when the attack happened.
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.
Pakistan has seen a resurgence in militant attacks since August 2021 when the Taliban took over in neighbouring Afghanistan, emboldening other groups like the local offshoot, Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.
Pakistan recorded 586 attacks last year, 55% more than in the previous year, according to Islamabad-based Center for Research & Security Studies.
The militants have targeted Chinese workers, prompting condemnation from Beijing and calls for Pakistan to strengthen its security of Chinese companies operating in the South Asian nation.
Last week an attack near the Chinese-operated Gwadar port complex in the southwestern Balochistan province resulted in the deaths of eight militants.
Pakistan’s Interior Ministry condemned the suicide attack on Tuesday and vowed a “strong retaliation”.
“The enemy has targeted the citizens of Pakistan’s most trusted friend,” the ministry said in a statement. “This was not an attack on Chinese nationals but on Pakistan.”
The attacks come as newly installed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif plans to revive work on the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, an infrastructure network of roads, railways and ports.
Addressing a ceremony in Islamabad on Tuesday, Sharif said industries would be set up across Pakistan under the second phase of the corridor project to revive the battered economy.