Pakistani police say 5 Chinese nationals and their local driver were killed in a suicide attack

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A suicide bomber in northwest Pakistan rammed his explosive-laden car into a vehicle Tuesday, killing five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver, police and government officials said.

The attack happened in Shangla, a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, local police chief Bakhat Zahir said. He added that the five killed were construction workers and engineers heading to the Dasu Dam, the biggest hydropower project in Pakistan, where they worked.

Authorities said the bodies were transported to a nearby hospital, and that security forces started a search in the area to look for accomplices. Police also launched an investigation into the attack.

No group claimed responsibility, but suspicion is likely to fall on Baluch separatists, who have claimed previous such attacks.

Tuesday’s attack came less than a week after Pakistani security forces killed eight Baluchistan Liberation Army militants who opened fire on a convoy carrying Chinese citizens outside the Chinese-funded Gwadar port in the volatile southwestern Baluchistan province.

The BLA wants independence from the central government in Islamabad.

Pakistan’s top political and military leadership denounced the attack.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif visited the Chinese Embassy where he met with the Chinese ambassador, Jiang Zaidong, a government statement said. It said that Sharif condemned the attack, saying those who orchestrated the attack would be punished and a high-level investigation will be conducted into the attack.

“The sympathies of the entire nation, including me, are with the families of the Chinese citizens” who were killed in the attack, he said.

In a statement, the Chinese Embassy condemned the attack and said it has