Dasu attack verdict demonstrates Pakistan's commitment to counterterrorism: FO

Pakistan on Monday said that the prosecution of Dasu attack perpetrators was a testimony of its commitment to combat terrorism.

The Foreign Office issued a statement after a special Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Friday handed over death sentences on 13 counts to each of the two accused while exonerating four others after declaring them innocent.

The statement was issued in response to a question regarding the verdict in last year's terrorist attack on Chinese engineers working on the Dasu hydropower project.

"We have noted the judgment passed by the relevant Court and details released by the local police. While specific queries may be directed to the relevant authorities, the proactive investigation, prosecution and judgment, in this case, have once again demonstrated Pakistan's abiding commitment to counterterrorism," FO said.

Extending its deepest condolences to the victims' families, it said that Pakistan was committed to the safety and security of Chinese workers, projects and institutions.

"The ironclad Pakistan-China All-Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership will never be undermined by hostile forces," it said.

On July 13 last year, 10 Chinese nationals, mostly engineers, were killed and 26 others were seriously injured after a suicide attack on a bus that was ferrying them to the work site of the Dasu Hydropower Project in Kohistan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

A case was registered and police arrested the accused. They were tried by special Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) Judge Sajjad Ahmad Jan at the camp court at Central Jail Haripur, in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

The ATC sentenced to death accused Muhammad Hussain, alias Syed Muhammad alias Zawan alias Mama, 49 and Muhammad Ayaz, 42. Both were residents of the Swat district of KP.

The court ordered for the hanging of each convict on 13 counts for the crime under section 302 PPC and 7(A) of the Anti-Terrorist Act (ATA). They have also imposed a Rs 1.5 million fine per victim, which the heirs of the deceased, would receive and ordered one-year additional imprisonment in case of non-payment of the fine by the convicts.

The court also issued orders for the release of the four other accused for not being guilty.

The Chinese government was livid after the attack, as it cancelled a key meeting with Pakistan and did not resume the work on the Dasu project until heavy compensation was paid to the Chinese victims.

The 4,320-MW Dasu Hydropower Project is being constructed by China Gezhouba company with funding from the World Bank and is not part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a multi-billion-dollar scheme launched in 2015.

The Pakistan government had initially tried to downplay the terror attack, by terming the incident as a gas leakage.

But later Islamabad acknowledged that it was a terrorist attack. China had also sent a group of experts to probe the attack.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)