A week after the bus blast in Dasu in July, assailants on motorcycles targetted two Chinese citizens in Karachi.

Some analysts warn that such incidents may in the future urge Islamabad and Beijing to reconsider the security parameters.

In this latest episode, two motorcyclists shot at a car carrying two Chinese engineers to a private site in Karachi. One of the engineers was injured, according to Karachi police who suspect that this was an act of terrorism. A Baloch separatist group, the Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF), has claimed responsibility for the Karachi attack. The police have not responded to this claim.

Law enforcement agencies in the Punjab, according to news reports, have apprehended two suspects involved in the Dasu bus explosion. The two brothers, apprehended from Lahore are suspected of providing the vehicle used to attack a bus and a coach carrying Chinese engineers to Dasu hydropower project site in the Upper Kohistan area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. As many as 13 people, including nine Chinese citizens, died and several others were injured in this blast, according to the police.

The matter was poorly handled and a statement was issued that the accident was caused by a ‘mechanical failure.’ The government was later compelled to review this position after the Chinese authorities strongly condemned the incident and described it as a “terrorist activity”.

“Initial investigations into the Dasu incident have shown traces of explosives. Terrorism cannot be ruled out. The prime minister is personally monitoring all developments in this regard and the government is in close coordination with the Chinese embassy. We are committed to fighting the menace of terrorism together,” Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, the federal minister for information, declared.

China has since sent a 15-member investigation team to Dasu for a joint probe. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has since visited China to deal with Beijing’s concerns.

“Both sides vehemently condemned the terrorist attack in Dasu that caused loss of precious lives and injuries to the Pakistani and Chinese workers. Both sides expressed their firm resolve to expose the culprits and their reprehensible designs through the ongoing joint investigation, give exemplary punishment to the perpetrators, ensure comprehensive safety and security of the Chinese projects, nationals and institutions, and prevent recurrence of such incidents,” Islamabad said in a statement released after the foreign ministers met in China.

It is still not clear whether it was an IED blast or a suicide attack. Police officials have so far declined comment. However, some reports attributed to high-level sources have pointed the finger towards neighbouring countries. It has been reported that a car hit one of the buses carrying the Chinese workers. The interior ministry has declined comment.

China has downplayed the Karachi incident where two Chinese engineers were attacked. This may be a sign of some understanding between the two governments.

The Dasu hydroelectric project is part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The incident also resulted in the postponement of the 10th Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) on CPEC. The meeting was aimed at discussing cooperation between the two countries on industrial projects.

Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed has called the incident “sabotage”.

“We assure the Chinese government that the culprits, the hidden hands and the enemies of the CPEC and Sino-Pak friendship will not be spared,” he told the media, adding, “Third-party sources are trying to create misunderstanding between all-weather friends Pakistan and China.”

The situation puts Chinese citizens and projects at risk amid rising fears of a difficult time ahead. The Taliban and the Baloch separatist groups are considered the major sources of terrorist activities in Pakistan. Till now, the Baloch separatist groups have claimed responsibility for most of the attacks on Chinese citizens and their investments in Pakistan. Pakistani authorities have also alleged that India is supporting these groups to cause disorder and chaos in Pakistan.

The history of attacks on the Chinese in Pakistan goes back to 2004 when a car bomb in Gwadar killed three Chinese engineers. Media reports have said the Karachi attack is the sixth incident of its kind in Pakistan. Earlier this year there was a blast in the parking lot in a hotel in Quetta where the Chinese ambassador had been staying.

The recent wave of attacks on the Chinese has come as security situation in neighboring Afghanistan is rapidly changing following the US withdrawal. Pakistan wants India to have no role in the Afghan peace process. The recent attack in Dasu seems to have been be well-planned and executed in the backdrop of timing and political context. Following the situation, the Chinese foreign minister, last week, met with the Afghan Taliban, a form of recognition of the entity as a major political player in Afghanistan. Several analysts are arguing that this presents the making of a China-Pakistan-Afghan Taliban alliance against the US-India-Ashraf Ghani regime in Afghanistan. Chinese people and projects, they say may be prime targets if terrorism spreads in Pakistan.

“A new wave of terrorism is coming,” says Mushahid Hussain Syed, senator and former chairperson of a special committee on the CPEC, adding, “Dasu blast was the biggest and most dangerous attack on Chinese in Pakistan.” He says that there was no doubt that it was a security lapse and failure of intelligence as the basic responsibility to protect Chinese and their projects here lies with Pakistani authorities. “We are responsible for their security and protection. We have to trace the facilitators of terrorism and eliminate them,” he says.

Syed has urged joint Pak-China strategies and mechanisms to curb such attacks in the future. He says Pakistan cannot afford a security crisis in the future. “China is very good at use of artificial intelligence and technology. There is a need for Pak-China intelligence collaboration to counter terrorism,” he says, adding, “We have to be ahead of the game.”

The author is a staff reporter. He can be reached at vaqargilani@gmail.com

Twitter: @waqargillani