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Pakistan admits terrorism possible in Chinese workers' bus blast
Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry tweeted that initial investigations of Wednesday's incident have "confirmed traces of explosives" and that terrorism has not been ruled out.
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Rescue workers and onlookers gather around a wreck after a bus plunged into a ravine following a bomb explosion, which killed 12 people including 9 Chinese workers, in Kohistan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on July 14, 2021. (AFP/Str)
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akistan on Thursday conceded that a blast on a bus carrying Chinese workers, which killed nine of them, could have been caused by explosives, after having initially termed the incident an accident.
Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry tweeted that initial investigations of Wednesday's incident have "confirmed traces of explosives" and that terrorism has not been ruled out.
A total of 13 people, including four Pakistanis, were killed in the incident that involved a bus carrying workers of the Dasu hydropower project in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry had initially claimed that the blast was caused by "mechanical failure resulting in leakage of gas," Kyodo News reported.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had told his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi that a preliminary investigation had showed that it was an accident and nothing to suggest a terrorist attack was found.
However, China's Foreign Ministry condemned the incident as a "bomb attack."
"China has asked the Pakistani side to thoroughly get to the bottom of the truth as soon as possible, arrest the perpetrators, severely punish them and earnestly protect the safety of Chinese personnel, institutions and projects in Pakistan," spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a press briefing in Beijing on Wednesday.
The change in the Pakistani position came after China postponed an upcoming meeting of the Joint Cooperation Committee of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a $62 billion bilateral infrastructure and industrial development undertaking.
The committee was to hold its annual meeting on Friday. No new date has been given for it.
Chaudhry said Prime Minister Imran Khan is personally supervising the case and the investigations are being closely coordinated with China.
"We are committed to fight menace of terrorism together," he said.
AFP reported that construction of the Dasu dam on the Indus River began in 2017 and was scheduled to be built within five years, according to the Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority.
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.
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 strategic access to the Arabian Sea -- killing at least eight people.
And in June 2000, Baloch insurgents targeted the Pakistan Stock Exchange, which is partly owned by Chinese companies, in the commercial capital of Karachi.
