GILGIT: The Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly has condemned the suicide attack on Chinese nationals and termed it a conspiracy to sabotage the Pakistan-China friendship.
Through a unanimously adopted resolution, the lawmakers vowed to protect the CPEC and Chinese nationals.During the session chaired by Deputy Speaker Sadia Danish, opposition leader Kazim Mesum and Javed Ali Manwa and Wazir Saleeem from the opposition benches tabled the resolution.
The resolution condemned the suicide attack on Chinese citizens in Bisham and the terrorist assault on a navy base at Turbat in Balochistan and said that attacks at the beginning and end of the CPEC route are alarming.
It paid great respect to all those who sacrificed their lives in the war on terrorism.Speaking on the issue, GB Minister for Law Sohail Abbas Shah suggested the resolution be declared unanimous.Opposition member Manwa said the attack on Chinese nationals amid talks for IMF loan seems to be aimed at discouraging investment in Pakistan.
MrMesum called for preventive measures to avoid such incidents in future.Later, the chair announced the resolution to have been passed unanimously.Meanwhile, Governor Syed Mehdi Shah, Chief Minister Haji Gulbar Khan, lawmakers, and political and religious leaders of GB condemned the terrorist attack on Chinese nationals.
According to a statement, the CM said anti-national elements were trying to spoil the development and peace of Pakistan.
It is pertinent to mention that China has demanded a “thorough investigation” after five of its nationals and one Pakistani were killed in an attack on a convoy in Bisham tehsil of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Shangla, according to the regional police chief and a station house officer (SHO).
Media 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.
“Five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver were killed in the attack,” Gandapur said.The provincial police had reached the spot and launched relief operations. The rest of the people in the convoy have been protected, Gandapur said.
Bisham SHO Bakht Zahir, while talking to Dawn.com, also confirmed that the incident claimed six lives, of which five were Chinese engineers and one was a Pakistani.He said it was a “suicide blast” 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.
“We will investigate from where and how the vehicle of a suicide bomber came and how it happened,” the SHO said.Rescue 1122 station head Sheraz Khan said that the bodies were being shifted to the Bisham Tehsil Headquarters Hospital.
