PRIME Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday said evil designs of the country’s enemies to spoil the Sino-Pak friendship would never succeed and vowed that all mega development projects being executed by China would continue at full pace. Speaking to Chinese engineers and workers executing the Dasu Hydropower Project during his visit to Upper Kohistan district, he assured them that their blood will never go waste and perpetrators behind this cowardly terrorist attack will be brought to justice. He also assured that the security of Chinese nationals working on the Dasu Hydropower Project and the rest of the country would be beefed up to a level where nobody could execute the Shangla-like cowardly act again.
The Prime Minister did well by undertaking a visit to the site along with Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Jiang Zaidong to express his deep condolences and sorrow on the killing of the Chinese engineers in a suicide attack in Bisham area of Shangla on March 26. This prompt expression of solidarity must have conveyed a vivid impression to the Chinese manpower working on development projects in Pakistan that the host Government was fully alive to their concerns and is willing to go to any extent to ward off dangers to their lives. He also told engineers that the government had taken the Bisham terrorist attack seriously and held a meeting attended by Chief of Army Staff General Syed Asim Munir, intelligence chiefs and the chief ministers of provinces and evolved a strategy to ensure no such subversive activity takes place again. In fact, Pakistan Prime Minister immediately announced a commission of inquiry into the dastardly attack and in a welcome development Chinese joined the investigations, which would surely give them a deeper insight into the tragedy and those behind the crime. In a related development, media reports suggest that the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) has arrested some suspected facilitators involved in the attack on the vehicle of Chinese engineers in Bisham. We hope that the inquiry commission would soon dig out fuller details, which would lead to identification of the culprits and initiation of concrete action against them. However, initial reports indicate the planning of the attack was done in neighbouring Afghanistan, which has become a nerve centre for anti-Pakistan activities because of the inability of the Afghan Government to take action against those who are constantly engaged in hatching conspiracies to destabilize Pakistan. This is in stark contrast to the prompt action that the Pakistan defence forces took against all terrorist groups that posed threats to the security of Afghanistan. The Afghan Government bears full responsibility for the ongoing carnage in Pakistan, especially the provinces of Balochistan and the KP. Pakistan witnessed a total of 432 violence-related fatalities and 370 injuries during the first quarter of 2024, stemming from 245 incidents of terror attacks and counter-terror operations. According to a report released by the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), the provinces of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan bore the brunt of this violence, accounting for over 92% of all fatalities and 86% of attacks during this period. The recent suicide attack on Chinese engineers working on the Dasu Dam project in the KP serves as a sobering reminder of the persistent threat posed by banned militant groups like Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Resurgence of terrorism, the selection of targets by terrorists and non-cooperation of the Taliban Government pose serious threats to Pakistan but the country has a track record of overcoming such challenges successfully. As Chinese understand the nature of the threat and designs of the enemy, they have expressed willingness to extend fullest possible cooperation to Pakistan in tackling the menace of terrorist. It is hoped that the threat would be minimized with the active collaboration of the two friends. There is no doubt that the enemy wants to harm developmental cooperation between Pakistan and China and in this backdrop the Prime Minister has given a welcome assurance that work on all projects being undertaken with Chinese assistance would continue at full pace. It is important that the security concerns of the Chinese are sorted out on a priority basis so that there is no suspension of work or possible delay in execution of any project.
