New Delhi: Five Chinese engineers, who had attacked Pakistani policemen in Khanewal last week over being barred from visiting a "red-light" area, were brought to Lahore from where they were deported to China.
According to a report in Pakistan newspaper Dawn, the workers, who were deported on Tuesday, include the company’s country project manager Xu libing, administation officer Tian Weijun, material and equipment engineer Wang Yifan, financial affairs manager Wang Yifan and field engineer Tan Yang.
Sources said that the workers had violated the security protocol set in place. They were unhappy with restrictions on their movement and ban on visits by outsiders at night. The workers had demanded that the special protection unit staff be moved outside their camp.
Following the clash between the police and Chinese nationals, Commissioner Bilal Butt called a meeting and formed a committee comprising Khanewal Deputy Commissioner Muzaffar Sial and District Police Officer Rizwan Umer Gondal to probe the matter.
The committee noted that the workers should have realised the sensitivity of the situation — the camp they reside in is classified A, based on the security threat to it — and should not have taken the law into their own hands. The company must be directed to ensure SOPs regarding security, they said.
Several video clips, which were doing rounds on social media on April 4, show Chinese nationals approaching the police officials in a threatening manner and attacking them.
The outraged engineers also cut power supply to the police camp established within the main construction camp, said the police.
The Chinese workers had stopped work on the project and abandoned heavy machinery and vehicles on various roads in the area. The protesting Chinese engineers wrote a letter to Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, claiming that police officials refrained them from performing their duties and attacked them.
They also accused the security in-charge of attempting to hit the Chinese workers with his vehicle. Police officials, however, rubbished the accusations.
The police officials had made it clear to the Chinese engineers that they will not be allowed to leave their camp without security arrangements.
In 2016, a clash occurred between the police and Chinese workers as the latter insisted on staying at a construction camp at night, but the former opposed the idea due to security reasons.
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