On April 16, a Chinese engineer who was working on a hydropower project in Kohistan District in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa area got arrested by Pakistan Police.
The Chinese engineer was accused of speaking about Allah in a way that showed a lack of interest or in short he ‘insulted’ Allah. As per the reports, he has commented about the slow pace of work at the time of Ramadan with his Pakistani colleagues at his workplace.
The Case
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The alleged, recognized in a formal complaint to the police by two Pakistani trash can drivers as “Mr. Tian, in charge of heavy machinery” was held up by police late on Sunday from a camp of Chinese workers where they used to live near Dasu.
Dasu Dam is a hydroelectric gravity dam under construction in Kohistan District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province in Pakistan.
As per the South China Morning Post, Tian has reportedly made comments regarding the slow pace of work at the time of Ramadan, which madden the Pakistani employees of the firm.
As the matter of the dispute and accused profanity spread, a charged mob of various hundred people, repeating death threats of Tian, cumulated outside the residential camp and started bombarding it with stones.
Residents Want Legal Repercussions
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A group of people from closeby villages also cumulated to block the Karakoram Highway linking Pakistan to China to hinder the Chinese citizen.
The police stepped in and fired aerial warning shots at the crowd to avoid a riot. The crowd carried on making a clash for about four hours and only went after the police guaranteed that the Chinese worker will face legal repercussions.
At the same time, after the abovementioned incident, the security of the Chinese nationals working on the World Bank-financed Dasu hydropower project has been screwed up.
More Attacks On Chinese Nationals
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Along with the oppression of minorities, Pakistan has newly been under attack for the increasing attacks on Chinese people living there. In September 2022, an anonymous gunman fired at a dental clinic in Karachi, Pakistan, in which a Chinese national got killed and two others were injured.
The accused managed to run away from the murder scene with the help of a co-conspirator who had parked his motorcycle on Preddy Street.
Before this, three Chinese nationals were killed in a suicide bombing at Karachi University in April by the sectarian Baloch Liberation Army, which is unkind to China’s participation in Balochistan and alleges China and Pakistan of making use of the resource-rich area.
In 2021, about 10 people were killed and 39 were injured after a bus carrying staff members working on Dasu Dam was expanded. Out of the four dead, 4 were Chinese members.