Beijing: China on Wednesday asked Pakistan to “thoroughly investigate” and “hunt down” the perpetrators behind Tuesday’s suicide attack on Chinese citizens amid speculation that Beijing may push Islamabad to accept its security agencies to guard the CPEC projects following a spike in attacks on them in the last few days.
At least five Chinese nationals were among the six persons killed on Tuesday when an explosives-packed vehicle rammed into their bus in Pakistan’s troubled province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in the second suicide attack on the personnel working on the China-backed hydropower project since 2021.
“China asks Pakistan to thoroughly investigate the incident as soon as possible, hunt down the perpetrators and bring them to justice,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told a media briefing here when asked about Beijing’s response to the suicide attack, the second on Chinese nationals in the area since 2021.
Notwithstanding the recurring terror attacks, China continues to back Pakistan, its iron-clad ally to protect thousands of its nationals working on the USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.
Lin said, “China firmly supports Pakistan in fighting terrorism. China and Pakistan have the resolve and capability to make the terrorists pay the price.”
“Our two countries are all-weather strategic cooperative partners. Our iron-clad friendship is deeply rooted in the two peoples. No attempt to sabotage China-Pakistan cooperation will ever succeed”, he said.
He declined to comment on reports that the new Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will visit Beijing in the coming days.
It is customary for Pakistan leaders to visit China after assuming office. Earlier reports said Sharif may seek more Chinese investments to bail out the cash-strapped Pakistan economy.
Concerns about the safety of thousands of Chinese personnel working in the USD 60 billion CPEC are mounting here as it was the third major attack on Chinese projects in Pakistan in a week.
Earlier, militants targeted a naval airbase and the strategic Gwadar port, the prime project of CPEC connecting with China’s Xinjiang.
Meanwhile, in Islamabad Prime Minister Sharif on Wednesday ordered a thorough joint investigation into the deadly terrorist attack on Chinese nationals.
Chinese analysts say that attacks are being carried out by Islamic religious extremist groups besides the separatist Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), which is opposed to China’s investments in Balochistan and accuses China and Pakistan of the exploitation of the resource-rich province.
The disquieting factor for China is the militants are resorting to suicide bomb attacks making it difficult for the security agencies to prevent them.
Chinese experts believe the latest attack is a copy of the July 2021 Dasu terror attack in which nine Chinese nationals and four Pakistani people were killed.
Qian Feng, director of the Research Department of the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, called this terrorist attack a “copy” of the 2021 attack. “The project is located in remote mountainous terrain in a valley, where religious extremists and terrorist forces are very active. And their method of attack is similar,” Qian told the state-run Global Times.
Qian said the culprits of this attack are yet to be found out, and this case should serve as a wake-up call for Pakistan that improving the security situation in Pakistan is still a long and arduous task, requiring joint efforts from all parties.
Earlier reports from Islamabad said China has been pressing Pakistan to permit its agencies to provide security for the Chinese personnel but Pakistan, which deployed a special force, was averse to Chinese boots on the ground.
“There will be concerns and reservations from China about the effectiveness of the security,” he said, adding that Pakistan was responsible for arranging security at the hydropower station.
“Why was [Pakistani security] unable to stop the attack?” Abdul Basit, an associate research fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies with Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University told the Hong Kong based South China Morning Post.
Basit predicted that the attack might encourage Chinese companies to hire their own security personnel, one of the major points of contention between the two countries.
“China has been pushing Pakistan to allow private Chinese security companies to come and do the security for the Chinese projects in Pakistan,” he said, adding, “Pakistan, of course, has refused that till now because if they do that, it would reflect poorly on Pakistani security institutions.”
Zhu Yongbiao, a professor at Lanzhou University’s School of Politics and International Relations, said the attack might affect China’s investment in Pakistan but would not have a major influence on the two countries’ economic cooperation.
“Overall speaking, Pakistan’s terrorism situation is deteriorating sharply. Due to China and Pakistan’s special relationship, the large amount of Chinese investment and personnel will become a target more easily,” Zhu said.
“The current investment from China may not be cut. However some additional investment projects might be suspended temporarily,” Zhu said.
