The federal cabinet on Wednesday decided to provide compensation of $250,000, equivalent to six crore ninety-five lac eighteen thousand nine hundred seventy-four rupees to Chinese nationals who were killed in Pakistan, The News reported.

 

Pakistan is working on an online application (App) for Chinese nationals to register themselves and track their movements. China has proposed to establish a joint venture security company, and such a mechanism is currently under consideration, Interior Ministry officials told the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Planning Development.

 

In a briefing to the National Assembly (NA) panel, the Director of the National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta), Col. Usman, told the committee there were 20,000 Chinese nationals in Pakistan, including 2,700 who were working on CPEC projects and remaining on non-CPEC projects as well as those scattered in their individual capacity. The standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the security of Chinese nationals have been updated in recent months in consultation with the Chinese Embassy to provide foolproof security.

 

Moreover, Nacta Director Colonel Usman informed the participants that a total of 14 terrorist attacks have occurred against Chinese nationals since 2021: two in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), four in Balochistan and eight in Sindh. In these assaults, “20 Chinese were killed and 34 injured, while eight Pakistanis fell dead and 25 were injured,” he added.

 

Furthermore, Nacta officials said Karachi was the primary target for terrorist organisations to cause damage to Chinese interests, noting, “Hostile Intelligence Agencies (HIAs) are the main director and financier of attacks on Chinese."

 

This came after two Chinese engineers returning to work on a project after a holiday in Thailand were dead in October’s airport bombing.

 

The attack was claimed by the banned outfit Baloch Liberation Army (BLA).

 

The committee was also informed that in the last ten months, 7,984 intelligence-based operations (IBOs) were conducted, including 3,882 in Punjab, 994 in Sindh, 2,807 in KP, 285 in Balochistan and 16 in ICT. In these operations, 206 terrorists were killed and 1,312 arrested.

 

“There has been no direct terrorist attack on CPEC projects so far,” the Nacta director clarified.

 

The committee was told that one per cent of the cost of CPEC projects was dedicated to security purposes, and two special security divisions of the army were deployed to secure CPEC projects. The Special Protection Unit (SPU) and Special Security Units were employed to protect Chinese nationals.