Bodies of murdered engineers flown home
By Le Tian (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-02-18 08:11

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said in Islamabad on Friday that all development activities between Pakistan and China would continue and the incident would not affect the friendship between the two countries.

In an interview at the presidential palace, Musharraf told Xinhua that the incident had shocked him.

"We condemn it in the strongest terms," he said. "We are annoyed at those who carried out this very evil act. We are determined to catch them and give them strongest and harshest punishment."

Bodies of the Chinese workers are brought to a hospital after a shooting incident in the Pakistani town of Hub, near Karachi, February 15, 2006. Pakistani separatist gunmen killed three Chinese workers and their driver in a drive-by shooting in southern Pakistan on Wednesday. [Reuters]

Families of the victims Long Hongbao, 32, Wei Jianping, 54, and Zhao Bin, 46 have spoken of their devastation.

"I can't accept his death, as he called me only days ago to say he would be coming back this Saturday," Zhao's wife Shi Weiling was quoted by Nanjing Morning Post as saying.

The father of Long, from Hefei, said: "My son was the pillar of the family, how can this tragedy have happened to him?"

Families of the victims are expected to get at least 400,000 yuan (US$49,000) in compensation according to their insurance policies, sources from the Anhui branch of the China Continent Property & Casualty Insurance Company Ltd said.

(China Daily 02/18/2006 page1)