KARACHI, Pakistan, Feb. 17 (Xinhuanet) -- The murder of three Chinese engineers in southwest Pakistan will not mar the Sino-Pakistani ties, Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Zhang Chunxiang said here Friday.

Pakistani soldiers carry the coffin of one of three Chinese engineers to plane at Faisal Air Base in Karachi, Pakistan Feb. 17, 2006. [Xinhua]

    The Chinese engineers' death will not affect the two countries' friendly relations of cooperation and traditional friendship, Zhang stressed.

    A special plane carrying the bodies of the engineers left the Faisal military base in Karachi on Friday for the capital Islamabad, where the bodies would be transferred to a transport plane of Pakistani air force to fly back to China's eastern province of Anhui, home of the engineers.

    The three Chinese engineers, Long Hongbao, Wei Jianpin and ZhaoBin, and their Pakistani driver were shot dead when the car they were riding in was attacked by gunmen on a road in the town of Hub, some 700 km southeast of Quetta, the capital of the southwestern province Baluchistan.

    A group calling itself the Baluchistan Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the killings, but Pakistani authorities have yet to confirm the claim. Enditem