Pakistan Will Ensure Security of 'Our Chinese Brothers': President Zardari

Islamabad: Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, on Thursday, said that his nation would take all necessary measures to ensure the safety of Chinese nationals working on various projects. His comments came over a week after five Chinese workers were killed as a result of a suicide attack in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The comments were made during a meeting with visiting Chinese Ambassador Jiang Zedong. During the meeting, where the two sides reportedly discussed the need for counter-terrorism cooperation, Zardari promised the ambassador that Pakistan would take “all necessary measures to ensure the security of our Chinese brothers, who are working on different projects in Pakistan”.

Last Tuesday, it may be recalled, a vehicle-borne suicide bomber targeted a convoy of Chinese engineers in the remote Besham area of the restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, killing five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver.

Separately, Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahar Baloch said at her weekly briefing that a security delegation headed by Bai Tian, Director General of the external security department of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, visited Pakistan after the attack.

“The purpose of the visit was to exchange views on the safety and security of Chinese nationals and to further deepen our existing cooperation in the field of counterterrorism,” she said.

Without giving details of the discussions of the delegation in Pakistan, she said that “meetings were fairly substantive, both in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Interior Ministry and with our law enforcement authorities.” She also said that as far as the Chinese hydropower projects are concerned, there was a temporary suspension, and following the security audit and enhancement of security measures, these projects are now functional.

Baloch also said that Pakistan is in the process of completing the various aspects of the investigation into the terrorist attack in Besham and would share it with the media after complete details.

“We have said in the past, and that is our policy, and if there is a clear connection, Pakistan will surely raise this concern with the Afghan authorities. There have been repeated incidents of terrorism inside Pakistan, which have been sponsored by individuals who are currently based inside Afghanistan and we expect the Afghan authorities to take urgent, immediate action against all terror groups,” she said.

While no group had claimed responsibility for the terror attack, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Counter-Terrorism Department blamed the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan for the assault.

Thousands of Chinese personnel are working in Pakistan on several projects under the aegis of the USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

With inputs from PTI.