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Five Chinese nationals and one Pakistani driver were killed on Tuesday after a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into their vehicle in the Bisham tehsil of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Shangla district, according to the regional police chief.
Speaking with the Reuters news agency, DIG Mohammad Ali Gandapur confirmed a suicide bomber had rammed a vehicle into a convoy transporting Chinese engineers from Islamabad to their camp in Dasu.
Dasu is the site of an under-construction dam that has also been targeted by militants in the past. In 2021, a bombing targeting a bus had killed 13 people, including nine Chinese nationals. The incident had trigger swift condemnation from China and demands for better security for its nationals, with the Pakistan Army vowing to ensure stringent measures to ensure their safety.
“Five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver were killed in the attack,” said the police chief, adding local police had reached the spot and started relief operations. He said the Pakistani driver was injured and shifted to a local hospital where he succumbed to his wounds during treatment. According to local media, authorities were collecting evidence to determine how the suicide bomber had reached the location and where the explosives were secured.
In a statement on X, former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari condemned the attack and condoled the deaths of the Chinese nationals. “The miscreants of the Bisham incident cannot escape punishment,” he added.
Pakistan is in the midst of resurgent terrorism, with reports of militants targeting security forces—particularly in KP and Balochistan—emerging daily. Islamabad has accused Afghanistan of sheltering militants and granting them safe haven and staged intelligence-based aerial strikes in Khost and Paktika provinces last week. Kabul, however, maintains terrorism is Islamabad’s “internal matter” and has not taken any substantive actions to curtail the terrorism emanating from its soil.