Pakistan’s minister suspects terrorism in bus crash that killed Chinese workers

Pakistan’s information minister Fawad Hussain Chaudhry said on Thursday investigators had found “traces of explosives” while probing a recent bus tragedy in Kohistan which claimed the lives of 13 people, including nine Chinese workers.

He maintained that the possibility of terrorism could not be ruled out in the incident, adding that the Pakistani government was in close coordination with the Chinese embassy in Islamabad.

Pakistan’s foreign office on Wednesday attributed the incident to a “mechanical failure” that caused an explosion on the bus before it fell into a ravine.

“This morning a bus carrying Chinese workers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, plunged into a ravine after a mechanical failure resulting in leakage of gas that caused a blast. Further investigations are underway,” the Pakistani foreign office said in its statement while extending condolences to the families of the Chinese and Pakistani workers who had died.

However, China insisted on thorough investigation into the incident.

Zhao Lijian, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, said on Thursday China would send a team to Pakistan to help investigate the blast while adding that Beijing was closely working with Islamabad to probe the incident.

The bus tragedy also prompted the Chinese diplomatic mission to caution its “citizens, enterprises, and projects in Pakistan to stay on alert, pay close attention to the local security situation, strengthen security protection, take strict precautions, and stop going out unless necessary.”

While no militant group has so far claimed responsibility of the incident, Chinese interests have been targeted in Pakistan by armed factions in the past.

In April, a car bomb blast ripped through a luxury hotel’s parking area in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, killing four people and wounding 11. It is believed that senior Chinese officials were staying at the hotel at the time of the attack.

In 2018, three suicide attackers stormed the Chinese consulate in the Pakistani city of Karachi amid a series of gunshots and an explosion but were killed before they could force their way in with a car packed with explosives.

Source: Arab News