Bodies of 3 engineers to return home

cctv.com 02-17-2006 13:43

The bodies of the three Chinese engineers killed near Karachi in southwestern Pakistan on Wednesday will be brought back to China by chartered plane later today (Friday). China's Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Commerce have sent task forces to deal with the aftermath. Meanwhile, President Hu Jintao has extended condolences to the families of the bereaved, and called on Pakistan to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens in the country.

As soon as it was informed of the incident, the Chinese consulate in Karachi sent a three-person team to the site to bring the 3 dead bodies and the 11 Chinese engineers who had been working on the same project back to Karachi.

Officials in the hometown of the three Chinese engineers who were killed on Wednesday in Pakistan visited their families on Thursday, promising to help them deal with the aftermath of the incident. The city governments of Xuzhou, Shangrao and Hefei, where the three victims worked, have all formed work teams to deal with the incident and have sent counselors to provide support to the victims' families.

The Ministry of Commerce has also activated a crisis management plan. He said: "We have formed a task force to cope with specific issues and have required the Chinese companies linked to the Pakistan project to dispatch working groups to deal with the aftermath. We'll ask the companies to stop operations in Pakistan, if safety conditions are not guaranteed. And work will only restart when all our conditions are guaranteed."

The three Chinese engineers and their Pakistani driver were killed on Wednesday when their car was attacked by gunmen. Three other Chinese, also in the car at the time, survived the incident unharmed.

The engineers were working for a Chinese company to prepare equipment and offer technical services for the construction of a local cement factory to be built in the first half of this year.

Factory manager Zahid Malik said: "...Only their van was intercepted while there was other traffic also on the road, and the gunmen fired on them. They killed the driver first, and then the three engineers. There were other Chinese who escaped unharmed in the same van."

Hours after the attack, a tribal militant group calling itself the Baluchistan Liberation Army, contacted local media and claimed responsibility for the shooting.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani government strongly condemned the killing of the three engineers in a statement, vowing to take all possible measures to prevent such evil acts in the future.

Editor:Wang Ping  Source:CCTV.com