<\/p>\n
China has demanded a \u201cthorough investigation\u201d after five of its nationals and one Pakistani were killed in an attack on a convoy in Bisham tehsil of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa\u2019s Shangla, according to the regional police chief and a station house officer (SHO).<\/p>\n
Reuters<\/em> quoted Mohammad Ali Gandapur, the regional police chief, as saying that a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a convoy of Chinese engineers which was on its way from Islamabad to their camp in Dasu.<\/p>\n \u201cFive Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver were killed in the attack,\u201d Gandapur said.<\/p>\n The provincial police had reached the spot and launched relief operations. The rest of the people in the convoy have been protected, Gandapur said.<\/p>\n Bisham SHO Bakht Zahir, while talking to Dawn.com<\/em>, also confirmed that the incident claimed six lives, of which five were Chinese engineers and one was a Pakistani.<\/p>\n He said it was a \u201csuicide blast\u201d and the authorities concerned were collecting evidence. Security arrangements were tightened at the spot and the bodies were being shifted to a hospital, he further said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will investigate from where and how the vehicle of a suicide bomber came and how it happened,\u201d the SHO said.<\/p>\n Rescue 1122 station head Sheraz Khan said that the bodies were being shifted to the Bisham Tehsil Headquarters Hospital.<\/p>\n The rescue official said that after the blast, the vehicle with the Chinese passengers fell into a gorge and caught fire. A rescue team then reached the spot and put out the fire, he added.<\/p>\n Dr Rehmat Ali, a spokesperson at the Dasu project, told Dawn.com<\/em> that the Chinese nationals were identified as four men and a woman, adding that their bodies were being taken to Islamabad.<\/p>\n China\u2019s embassy demanded investigations into the attack.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Chinese embassy and consulates in Pakistan have immediately launched emergency work, demanding that the Pakistani side conduct a thorough investigation into the attack, severely punish the perpetrators and take practical and effective measures to protect the safety of Chinese citizens,\u201d the embassy said in a statement.<\/p>\n In July 2021, 13 people, including nine Chinese nationals, were killed<\/a> when a coach carrying them to an under-construction tunnel site of the 4,300-megawatt Dasu hydropower project fell into a ravine in the Upper Kohistan area after an explosion.<\/p>\n Although the Foreign Office had initially termed the incident an accident, the government later said<\/a> traces of explosives had been found, with the information minister at the time saying \u201cterrorism could not be ruled out\u201d.<\/p>\n In November 2022, an anti-terrorism court in Hazara awarded<\/a> the death sentence to two men after convicting them for planning the attack.<\/p>\n Recent terrorist incidents dastardly acts targeting internal security: ISPR<\/h2>\n