KARACHI (The Thursday Times) — An anti-terrorism court in Karachi has convicted a man of terrorism and attempted murder over the 2021 gun attack on a car carrying two Chinese engineers, handing him sentences that add up to 48 years in prison.
Anti-Terrorism Court No. IV convicted Dad Bux, also reported as Dad Bakhsh, on Friday on seven counts, including terrorism, attempted murder, illegal possession of a firearm, and damaging a vehicle, according to the judgment as reported. The sentences are to run concurrently, so the longest single term, 14 years for terrorism, is the one he will serve, subject to the law.
The court also fined him and ordered him to pay compensation to the engineer who was wounded. He was already in judicial custody and can appeal against the verdict in the Sindh High Court.
The 2021 attack
On July 28, 2021, gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on the car near Gulbai in Karachi as the two engineers were travelling to a factory in the SITE industrial area to install machinery. One of them, Yuan Changfeng, was wounded. His colleague and their Pakistani driver were unhurt.
The court found that the attack had been planned in advance and was meant to intimidate Chinese nationals working in Pakistan. A rickshaw driver who saw the shooting identified the accused at a judicial identification parade and again in court, and forensic tests linked cartridge cases from the scene to a 9mm pistol recovered during the investigation.
The banned Balochistan Liberation Front claimed the attack in a statement that investigators placed before the court. The court said the claim on its own did not prove that Dad Bux belonged to the group.
A second case
Dad Bux has also been charged over the April 2022 suicide bombing at the Confucius Institute of the University of Karachi, which killed three Chinese teachers and their Pakistani driver and was claimed by the banned Balochistan Liberation Army. Friday’s verdict covers only the 2021 shooting.
The United States designated the Balochistan Liberation Army and its Majeed Brigade as foreign terrorist organisations in August 2025. Read more.
Chinese engineers and workers on projects across Pakistan have been targeted by terrorists several times in recent years, and Pakistan has repeatedly pledged to protect them. The verdict comes in the same week that Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir promised full security for mines, miners, and investors at the Pakistan Minerals Investment Forum in Islamabad, which closed with 13 agreements and MoUs.
