China joins investigation into Pakistan’s deadly suicide attack

Chinese investigators have arrived in Pakistan to join an inquiry into the murders of five Chinese citizens in a suicide attack, Pakistan’s interior ministry said .

According to reports, the investigation aims to stop attacks that endanger Islamabad’s efforts to modernize its economy.

The incident was the third big strike on China’s interests in South Asia in less than a week, with Beijing investing more than $65 billion in infrastructure projects as part of its larger Belt and Road strategy.

Pakistan’s Interior Minister, Mohsin Naqvi met the Chinese team of investigators at Beijing’s embassy and briefed them on the investigation so far, the statement said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest attack, in which a suicide bomber rammed a vehicle into a convoy of Chinese engineers working on a hydropower project at Dasu in Pakistan’s northwest, killing six people.

The bombing followed a March 20 attack on a strategic port used by China in the southwestern province of Balochistan, where Beijing has poured billions of dollars into infrastructure projects, and a March 25 assault on a naval air base, also in the southwest.

Both attacks were claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the most prominent of several separatist groups in Balochistan.

Dasu, the site of a major dam, has been attacked in the past, with a bus blast in 2021 killing 13 people, nine of them were Chinese, though no organization claimed credit.

According to a report, Chinese contractors paused work on three hydroelectric projects due to security concerns following Tuesday’s attack, a government official said, adding that this was standard procedure after similar attacks.

Pakistan is home to two insurgencies, one led by Islamist militants and the other by ethnic separatists seeking secession, blaming the government’s unequal distribution of natural riches in southern Balochistan province.

Pakistan has established a specific police and military unit to protect Chinese activities, according to officials.