Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, July 14: At least 13 people including nine Chinese engineers and four Pakistani soldiers have been killed in a powerful blast in a bus that threw it into a ravine on Wednesday morning in northwestern Pakistan, government and police officials said. At least 28 Chinese nationals were also injured, several of them critically fuelling apprehension that the death toll still might increase while one Chinese engineer and a Pakistani soldier are also reported “missing.”
While the Pakistani officials said the nature of the blast was still not known and was under investigation, the Chinese embassy in Islamabad straight way termed it a “terror attack” and asked the Pakistani authorities to thoroughly investigate the case and severely punish those guilty of killing the Chinese nationals.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Chinese embassy said that “a certain project of a Chinese firm in Pakistan suffered an attack, which caused the deaths of Chinese nationals.” It urged Chinese firms to strengthen their security procedures and called for the swift arrest of the attackers.
Condemning the attack, Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian urged Pakistan to “severely punish” the perpetrators “and earnestly protect the safety of Chinese nationals, organisations and projects” in the country.
The bus was carrying Chinese engineers, surveyors and mechanical staff to the Dasu dam construction site which China was helping Pakistan to build in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a local government official said. “The blast sparked a fire in the engine plunging the vehicle into a ravine,” he said.
A senior local police official confirmed the incident and said: “It was a heavy blast but its nature is not known yet.”
The security of Chinese workers has long been an issue of concern in Pakistan. Large numbers of them are based in the country to supervise and build infrastructure projects. In April, the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for a deadly suicide blast at a luxury hotel hosting the Chinese ambassador, who was unhurt, in southwest Balochistan.
The group has recently claimed a string of attacks not only in Pakistan’s restive tribal areas along the Afghanistan border but also in the country’s cities, including the capital Islamabad. There have been signs in recent months that the Pakistan Taliban have been regrouping along the Afghan border, claiming frequent clashes with security officials.
Beijing has poured billions of dollars into Pakistan in recent years to boost the country’s infrastructure. But Chinese-funded projects have sparked resentment, particularly among separatist groups, who say locals see little benefit with most jobs going to outsiders.
In 2019, gunmen stormed a luxury hotel in Balochistan overlooking a flagship Chinese-backed project — the deep-water seaport in Gwadar that gives China strategic access to the Arabian Sea — killing at least eight people. Last June, Baloch insurgents targeted the Pakistan Stock Exchange in the commercial capital of Karachi which is partly owned by Chinese companies.
Initially Pakistan passed it on as a road accident claiming that such road accidents were common in Pakistan where motorists largely disregard traffic rules and safety standards on damaged roads, particularly in the mountainous terrain in the north. It stated that a “bus carrying Chinese and Pakistani construction workers on a slippery mountainous road in northwest Pakistan fell into a ravine Wednesday, killing at least 10 people, including six Chinese nationals.”
The Chinese authorities maintained that the bus was particularly targeted by the terror groups but it was not immediately clear if the blast was the result of a roadside device or something planted inside the bus.
Chinese engineers and Pakistani construction workers have been working on the Dasu hydroelectric project for several years in the region where the blast took place.
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