Pakistan: Chinese nationals targeted by suicide attack in Balochistan
On board vehicles, workers and executives working on the new highway connecting the port of Gwadar (our photo) to the expressway of Makran in Balochistan.
Reuters / Qadir Baloch / Files
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
Two people were killed, three wounded, including a Chinese national, this is the latest assessment of the suicide attack which targeted, Friday, August 20, a Chinese convoy in Balochistan (southwest of Pakistan).
The Chinese Embassy in Islamabad strongly condemned this attack.
This is the second time that Chinese workers have been targeted in a month.
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With our correspondent in Beijing,
Stéphane Lagarde
A vehicle riddled with impacts, deformed sheets, windows blown out by the explosion, the photos on Chinese state media, this Saturday, August 21, bear witness to the violence of the bomb unleashed by the suicide bomber as the convoy passed.
On board vehicles, workers and executives working on the new highway connecting the port of Gwadar to the expressway of Makran in Balochistan.
It is the summer of all dangers for the projects of Beijing in Pakistan: on July 14, 13 people including 9 Chinese nationals lost their lives in a bus going to the Dasu dam, in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Major targeted projects
A highway, a hydroelectric dam ... Already in May 2019, an attack on a luxury hotel overlooking the deep-water port of Gwadar, had caused the death of at least eight people.
Each time, flagship projects of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) are targeted - more than 40 billion euros for the port of Gwadar, 140 million euros for the
Gwadar eastbay Expressway
.
Projects whose schedule is often postponed because of the difficulties encountered on the ground and sometimes the resentment of part of the local population vis-à-vis the seizure of land and resources.
Threats underestimated?
On the spot, Chinese companies have not always developed means of protection in connection with the rise of the threat, say company security specialists.
But Chinese institutions are also threatened.
Last April, a bomb exploded in the parking lot of a hotel in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan where the Chinese ambassador was staying.
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See also: Pakistan: two Chinese injured in an armed attack in Karachi
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