China demands $38mn compensation for Dasu blast amid soaring Islamabad & Beijing tensions

Amid rising tensions between Islamabad and Beijing, China has demanded $38 million compensation from Pakistan for the dead engineers at the Dasu Dam Project. Back in July 2021, 13 people, including nine Chinese engineers, along with over two dozen other people, had sustained injuries when a bus carrying the team working on the Dasu Hydropower Project fell into a ravine after it was hit by a car laden with explosives. Months after the incident, while writing for Business Recorder, Mushtaq Ghumman said that China wanted to be compensated before resuming work on the stalled project. 

Business Recorder reported that the issue of compensation to the Chinese nationals is being discussed at a high level. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Water Resources and Chinese embassy are working closely on the compensation package, as well as resumption of work on the project. Additionally, the Steering Committee, which comprises Secretaries of concerned Chinese Ministries, has constituted another Committee that discusses issues linked to the Dasu project, especially the volume of compensation being demanded by the Chinese government. 

Ghumman informed that the Committee has constituted a Subcommittee, comprising all the relevant Ministries to discuss compensation packages by taking the Chinese embassy on board as the proposed package is being termed as “irrational”. He added that the Chinese Secretary of Water Resources is hopeful that the compensation issue will be sorted out within a couple of weeks, after which civil work on the site will resume. 

Stalled Dasu Hydropower Project 

It is to mention that civil work in the Dasu Hydropower Project was suspended after the attack on Chinese engineers in July. The Chinese firm, China Gezhouba Group Corp, then had announced negation of its decision to resume work and terminate Pakistani workers, at the request of the Imran Khan-led Pakistani government. However, the Chinese company has not yet resumed the work and also said that it will not proceed ahead until a compensation package and more security of Chinese nationals is provided. 

At least 12 persons including 9 Chinese citizens were killed at around 7 am on 14 July when a shuttle bus carrying working staff on the Dasu Hydropower Project fell into a ravine following an explosion. Following the incident, while Pakistani officials had blamed the blast as a result of mechanical failure, China came out hard calling it an act of terror. China then even sent their own team of investigators to Pakistan in a bid to probe the bus explosion. 

(With inputs from ANI)