RAWALPINDI: The search for a 36-year-old Chinese engineer who went missing a week ago while working on a tunnel connected to a river in Kahuta is ongoing.
Pingzhi
Liu was working on the Karot Power Project when he went missing. Since
his disappearance, police, Special Protection Unit (SPU) personnel and
intelligence authorities have launched investigations on various lines, including the possibility of kidnapping for ransom, drowning, murder and that Mr Liu has returned to his home country.
A
senior police official close to the investigation said divers had not
been able to find him in the river, while sniffer dogs could not leave
the workplace where Mr Liu was last seen.
The official
said he may be hiding outside his workplace to return to his home
country because he may have been homesick. There were two such cases, in
which Chinese workers attempted to escape their workplaces, although
they were apprehended and deported later on, he said.
In
one such case a year ago, he recalled, a Chinese technician who was
working on a development project in Nankana Sahib escaped after telling
his superiors he was going to the bathroom.
He said the
search for the technician had found him hiding in a house in the
village. He had revealed that he was eager to join his family back home.
When the matter was brought to the notice of the Chinese consulate in
Lahore, the technician was sent back to China.
“It is a
possibility that he might be hiding somewhere, but we will not stop
searching until we find Mr Liu,” the official said, adding that it had
been confirmed that he had not left the country from any airport so far.
The
police have detained some people working on the same project, and
questioned SPU personnel who were deployed at the project to protect
foreign workers, but had yet to make any progress.
They
have also been using notables from nearby villages and have been making
announcements asking for the police to be informed if anyone has seen a
stranger in or around their homes.
