The
Chinese Embassy in Pakistan strongly condemned the suicide attack targeting a
motorcade carrying Chinese nationals at the Gwadar Eastbay Expressway Project
on Friday, which killed two Pakistani children and injured one Chinese
worker.
The embassy asked Pakistan to upgrade its safety
measures to ensure such incidents won't happen again.
This comes only a month after nine Chinese
nationals were killed when a bus carrying Chinese engineers and workers to the
site of the Dasu Dam was attacked in the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province,
Global Times said Saturday.
On Friday, at the Gwadar East Bay Expressway
project in Balochistan, Pakistan, a motorcade carrying Chinese workers was
attacked by a suicide bomber. One Chinese was injured, two local children were
killed and several others were injured, according to the Chinese embassy.
Hours after the bombing, the terrorist group Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility, the Global Times said.
"BLA carried out a 'self-sacrificing' attack against a convoy of Chinese engineers," Reuters quoted a BLA statement as saying.
In
2018, the group also attacked the Chinese Consulate-General in Karachi in south
Pakistan, during which two policemen were killed.
"A young boy suddenly ran out as the convoy
driving Chinese workers reached there. Fortunately, Pakistan army soldiers in
plain clothes employed nearly rushed to snatch the boy, who immediately
exploded himself about 15-20 meters away from the convoy," an official
from the Ministry of Interior of Pakistan said.
Recently, the security situation in Pakistan has
worsened. There have been several terrorist attacks in succession, resulting in
the casualties of several Chinese citizens.
"Attack in Gwadar is just another expression of a game of sabotage against the economic vision of the great leadership of China and Pakistan, our enemy cannot undermine our resolve, we will spare no effort to bring the culprits to justice," Fawad Hussain Chaudhry, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting of Pakistan, said on Twitter on Saturday.
The Gwadar Eastbay Expressway Project, a China-aided project, started construction in November 2017, and it is a highlight of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor framework. Gwadar is a key district where the Chinese are working on projects related to the $60bn China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which is part of China's Belt and Road Initiative. The projects include road construction, power plants and agriculture development.
