Designs to spoil Pak-China friendship won’t succeed: PM

MANSEHRA: 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.

“I am here to express my heartfelt condolences on the death of the five Chinese engineers who laid their lives for the prosperity and development of our country. I assure you that their blood will never go waste and perpetrators behind this cowardly terrorist attack will be brought to justice,” he said while speaking to Chinese engineers and workers executing the Dasu Hydropower Project during his visit to Upper Kohistan district.

The prime minister along with Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Jiang Zaidong and federal ministers Amir Muqam and Atta Tarar reached Kass residential camp directly from the federal capital. He expressed his deep condolences and sorrow on the killing of the Chinese engineers in a suicide attack in Bisham area of Shangla on March 26.

The premier and Chinese ambassador were received by the Wapda chairman, Chinese CGGC company’s executive officer, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief secretary and inspector general of police on their arrival at the helipad.

“I assure you and Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Qiang that we will never provide such an opportunity to our enemies in the future to carry out such a cowardly act on our soil,” he said.

Shehbaz said he was saddened by the Bisham terrorist attack which left five Chinese and their Pakistani driver dead.

“I visited the Chinese Embassy after this cowardly attack carried out by our enemies who want to spoil our friendship which is higher than the Himalayas and deeper than oceans, and offered sincerest condolences on behalf of myself and the nation to Chinese people and government,” he said.

The prime minister said that he had constituted an inquiry committee to probe the Bisham attack and would act on its findings.

“We will never hesitate to act and bring to justice all those involved in this attack as the committee constituted after the incident shared its findings with us,” he said.

He said 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.

He said 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.

“We are going to hold a follow-up meeting within days to finalise our strategy to provide foolproof security to Chinese nationals working on the Dasu hydropower project and other development projects,” the prime minister said.

Chinese Ambassador Jiang Zaidong thanked the prime minister for his visit to Dasu to extend his condolences.

“I am thankful to the prime minister for his visit and condolences and all those actions taken by him to console the Chinese and their families. We want foolproof security to prevent such attacks in future,” he said.

He said the Pakistani government should take extraordinary measures to flush out terrorism from the country.

The prime minister and other participants observed a 30-second silence on the occasion for the departed souls of five Chinese nationals who were killed in the attack.