ISLAMABAD – Pakistan’s Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) has approved $2.5 million in compensation for the families of Chinese workers who were killed in a suicide attack in the Shangla District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in March this year.
On 26 March, five Chinese workers and their Pakistani driver were killed on their way to the Dasu hydropower project in northwestern Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Pakistan has promised to find those responsible for the attack and to improve security for Chinese workers and projects in the country. Earlier this month, the Pakistan army said the bomber was from Afghanistan and that the attack was planned there. However, the Taliban in Kabul deny this.
The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) approved the compensation, which includes $2.58 million and Rs. 2.5 million for the Ministry of Water Resources. Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb chaired the ECC meeting.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister, Mohsin Naqvi, said new safety procedures for Chinese nationals in Pakistan would be introduced soon.
The Dasu attack was the third major attack on Chinese interests in Pakistan in just over a week. China has invested over $65 billion in energy, infrastructure, and other projects in Pakistan as part of its Belt and Road initiative.
The bombing on 26 March followed two other attacks: one on 20 March at a strategic port in Balochistan and another on 25 March at a naval air base, both claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA).
Dasu has been attacked before, including a bus explosion in 2021 that killed 13 people, nine of them Chinese.
