Chinese Foreign Minister Urges Pakistan To Investigate Bus Explosion That Kills Nine Citizens

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. (Wikimedia Commons/Chancellery of Ecuador)

JAKARTA - Senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi urged Pakistan to investigate an explosion on a bus that killed 13 people, including nine Chinese workers, but stopped short of calling it an attack, according to a post on the ministry's official website Thursday 15 July.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman called Wednesday's explosion a bomb attack, but Pakistan said a mechanical failure caused a gas leak that led to the explosion.

The explosion caused the bus to crash into a ravine in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber-Paktunkhwa province, where Chinese engineers have for several years been working on a hydroelectric project as part of the Beijing Belt and Road Initiative (BOR).

China is a close ally and major investor in Pakistan and various militants fighting the Pakistani state in the past have attacked Chinese projects.

Wang told Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi if it was indeed a 'terrorist attack', Pakistan should immediately arrest the perpetrators and punish them severely, according to a summary of the Chinese ministry's meeting in Dushanbe on Wednesday.

Wang, who is also China's State Counselor and Foreign Minister, said lessons must be learned and both sides should further strengthen security measures, to ensure that joint China-Pakistan cooperation projects run safely and smoothly.

It is known, the two spoke in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, on the sidelines of a meeting of foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

As previously reported, a bus exploded in northern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing 13 people, including nine Chinese nationals, which Pakistan says were the result of a problem with the vehicle, rather than a bomb attack.

Two Pakistani soldiers were also among the dead after the explosion sent the bus over a ravine, local government and police sources said.

The Chinese embassy in Pakistan confirmed that nine of its nationals were killed. Treated the explosion as a bomb attack but gave no further details. Meanwhile, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said a mechanical failure caused a gas leak that triggered the explosion.

A senior Hazara region administration official said the bus was carrying more than 30 Chinese engineers to the Dasu dam site in Upper Kohistan. The Dasu hydroelectric project is part of the China - Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

To note, the project cost US$65 billion of investment under the Beijing Belt and Road Initiative (BOR), which aims to connect western China to the southern Pakistani sea port of Gwadar.