China pressures Pakistan after losing 9 engineers in bus attack

Beijing postpones Belt and Road meeting and halts work on $4bn dam

An ambulance arrives at a hospital in Dasu after a bus with Chinese nationals on board plunged into a ravine in Upper Kohistan, Pakistan, on July 14 following a blast. (Nikkei montage/Reuters/AP)

ADNAN AAMIR, Contributing writer

July 21, 2021 12:00 JST

KARACHI -- Following a terror attack that killed nine Chinese engineers in northern Pakistan last week, Beijing has ramped up pressure on Islamabad, postponing a high-level joint committee for the Belt and Road Initiative and halting a billion-dollar hydropower project.

The Dasu Hydropower project currently under construction in northwest Pakistan is led by China Gezhouba Group Company (CGGC) at an estimated cost of over $4 billion. It is slated to have a capacity of 4,320 MW.