On Sunday, April 16, Pakistan police arrested a Chinese engineer working at a hydropower project in Kohistan District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in the country on accusations of blasphemy. The Chinese national working in China Gezhouba Group Company was accused of ‘insulting’ Allah.
He had allegedly commented about the slow pace of work during the Islamic holy month of Ramzan during an argument with his Pakistani subordinates at his workplace.
The accused, identified in a formal complaint to the police by two Pakistani dumpster drivers as “Mr Tian, in charge of heavy machinery,” was detained by police late on Sunday from a residential camp for Chinese workers near Dasu, about 350 km north of Islamabad ‘to avert a serious situation.’
Dasu Dam is a hydroelectric gravity dam under construction in Kohistan District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province in Pakistan. China’s Gezhouba Group Company Limited has undertaken main civil works.
According to South China Morning Post, Tian had allegedly commented about the slow pace of work during the Islamic holy month of Ramzan, which infuriated the Pakistani employees of the company. As the news of the argument and alleged blasphemy spread, a charged mob of several hundred people, chanting death threats against Tian, gathered outside the residential camp and began pelting it with stones.
Hundreds of people from nearby villages also gathered to block the Karakoram Highway connecting Pakistan to China to protest against the Chinese citizen.
The police intervened and fired aerial warning shots at the mob to prevent a riot. The mob kept creating a ruckus for almost four hours and only dispersed after the police assured that the Chinese engineer would face legal repercussions.
Meanwhile, after the aforementioned incident, the security of the Chinese nationals working on the World Bank-financed Dasu hydropower project has been tightened.
Attack on Chinese nationals in Pakistan
In addition to the persecution of minorities, Pakistan has recently been under fire for the increase in attacks on Chinese people living there. In September last year, an unidentified gunman opened fire inside a dental clinic in Karachi, Pakistan, killing a Chinese national and injuring two others. The suspect managed to flee the murder scene with the assistance of an accomplice who had parked his motorcycle around the corner on Preedy Street.
Prior to this, three Chinese nationals were killed in a suicide bombing at Karachi University in April by the separatist Baloch Liberation Army, which is hostile to China’s involvement in Balochistan and accuses China and Pakistan of exploiting the resource-rich province.
In 2021, at least 10 people lost their lives and 39 were injured after a bus carrying staff members working on Dasu Dam was blown up. Of the four dead, 4 were Chinese nationals.
In fact, after the string of attacks reported in the recent past, reports emerged on how Pakistan’s security systems are no longer trusted by the Chinese population, particularly the Chinese labourers there. Chinese employees in Pakistan feel frightened and don’t trust Pakistan’s security apparatus to keep them safe in an emergency.
Last year, owing to the repeated attacks on Chinese nationals, a top-level tri-service military group from Pakistan visited China from June 9 to 12 to address various issues with senior military and government officials from Beijing. During the discussion, the attacks on Chinese citizens by Baloch militants were brought up.
Beijing requested Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa to take appropriate actions to avoid attacks on Chinese people working on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) facilities in Pakistan’s Balochistan province.
It’s worth mentioning that China has made major infrastructural investments in Pakistan. The projects, one of which being the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), rely heavily on Chinese manpower and funds.