China Joins Pakistan Investigation On Suicide Attack

Chinese investigators arrived in Pakistan on Friday to assist with an investigation into the suicide bombing that claimed the lives of five Chinese people.

The Ministry of Interior Pakistan stated that the goal of the Chinese investigators is to stop attacks that might jeopardize Islamabad’s efforts to modernize its economy.

The incident on Tuesday 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 with the Chinese team of investigators at Beijing’s embassy and updated them on the investigation’s progress.

In late 2022, the two ally countries launched a joint inquiry into an attack against Chinese nationals and interests, which had increased in previous months.

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

The strike came after a March 20 attack on a vital port used by China in the southern province of Balochistan, where Beijing has invested billions of dollars in infrastructure projects, and a March 25 assault on a navy air facility in the southwest. Both attacks were claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the most visible of various separatist factions 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.

Following Tuesday’s attack, Chinese contractors paused construction on three hydroelectric projects due to security concerns, according to a government official, adding that this was standard procedure after similar attacks.

There are two distinct insurgencies in Pakistan. One is led by Islamist militants, while the other is carried out by ethnic separatists who want to secede from the country and accuse the government of dividing natural resources unfairly in the southwest region of Balochistan.

Chinese interests are being targeted largely by ethnic extremists aiming to drive Beijing out of mineral-rich Balochistan, but that region is far from the location of Tuesday’s blast.

According to officials, Pakistan has established a separate police and military unit to protect Chinese activities.

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