On Friday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif made the decision to personally evaluate each month’s meetings pertaining to the security scenario in the nation as a whole and, specifically, the safety of Chinese nationals employed on various projects around the nation.
Days after a Chinese engineer assault in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Besham region, the prime minister has ordered the security agencies to take all necessary precautions to guarantee the safety of any Chinese nationals who may be in Pakistan.
The prime minister gave the directive at a high-level discussion about the state of law and order in the nation. The conference was called after a suicide assault in Besham, a rural part of K-P province, on March 26 claimed the lives of six individuals, including five Chinese engineers.
The Chinese engineers were being transported by convoy from Islamabad to the Dasu hydropower project site when an explosive-laden car that was parked on the roadside blew up. At the Dasu project, this was the second attack on Chinese laborers. A similar terrorist incident in July 2021 claimed the lives of 13 persons, nine of them were engineers.
PM Shehbaz gave the task of creating a detailed action plan for the routine audit of security SOPs at the meeting. PM Shehbaz said, “We will keep fighting the monster of terrorism until it is exterminated from the nation.”
The prime minister also gave the ministry of interior instructions to work more closely with the provinces to eradicate terrorism from the nation and enhance the capabilities of the local anti-terrorist agencies.
Following a briefing by the interior ministry on the state of national security and the ministry’s performance, the prime minister issued the directive. Attendees included top officials with essential roles, leaders of security agencies, and Federal Interior Minister Syed Mohsin Naqvi.
The recent attacks on Chinese-affiliated institutions and the deaths of Chinese people have come to be seen as a litmus test for the new administration. PM Shehbaz announced shortly after the assaults that a comprehensive joint inquiry would be conducted and that the culprits of the heinous act would be promptly brought to justice.
During a meeting that included the chief of army staff, chief ministers, chief secretaries, inspector generals of police from each province, and federal ministers, the attack on innocent civilians working on a development project intended to support Pakistan’s water and energy security was thoroughly discussed.
The COAS reaffirmed the military’s commitment to eradicating the menace of terrorism that plagues the nation. Gen. Asim Munir had stated that the enemies of Pakistan had once again misjudged the tenacity and grit of the State and the people of Pakistan, pointing to the recent spike in terrorist attacks.
Since the preliminary inquiry indicated a connection to Afghanistan, Pakistan also made the decision to bring up the question of whether or not the recent terrorist strikes against Chinese engineers used Afghan land while speaking with the Taliban interim government.
It was stated that although no organization has taken credit for the attack on March 26, preliminary inquiries point to a network connected to the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) as the perpetrator. Since then, the authorities have made a number of arrests based on information found on the SIM card belonging to the suicide bomber, who is believed to be an Afghan national.
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