Five Chinese dam workers, driver killed in Pakistan

A suicide bomber rammed a vehicle into a convoy of Chinese engineers working on a dam project in northwest Pakistan yesterday, killing six people, police said, the third major attack on Chinese interests in the South Asian country in a week.

The first two attacks targeted a Pakistan naval air base and a strategic port used by China in the southwest province of Balochistan where Beijing is investing billions in infrastructure projects.

The engineers were en route from Islamabad to their camp at the dam construction site in Dasu in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, regional police chief Mohammad Ali Gandapur said.

"Five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver were killed in the attack," Gandapur told Reuters.

Dasu is the site of a major dam and the area has been attacked in the past.

Chinese engineers have been working on a number of projects in Pakistan with Beijing investing over $65 billion in infrastructure works as part of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) under Beijing's wider Belt and Road initiative.