ISLAMABAD/TASHKENT   -   Prime Minister Imran Khan Friday assured Chinese Premier Li Keqiang that his government would spare no effort to fully investigate the bus incident in which 9 Chinese nationals lost their lives. 

In a telephonic conversation, the prime minister said the security of Chinese nationals, workers, projects, and institutions in Pakistan, is the “highest priority of the government.” 

During the call, Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed heartfelt condolences over the loss of precious lives of Chinese nationals caused by the tragic incident in Dasu. The prime minister said the people of Pakistan shared grief and pain of the bereaved families. He underlined that the government of Pakistan was providing the best possible medical care to the injured Chinese nationals.

He reiterated that Pakistan and China had an iron-clad friendship which had withstood the vicissitudes of time. No hostile forces would be allowed to damage brotherly relations between Pakistan and China, he added. 

At least 13 people including nine Chinese nationals and four Pakistanis were killed and more than two dozen others wounded Wednesday morning when a shuttle bus they were travelling in plunged into a deep ravine after an explosion on board.

The bus was ferrying the Chinese and Pakistani workers to an under-construction tunnel site of the Dasu Hydropower Project in the remote Kohistan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. “Initial investigations into the Dasu incident have now confirmed traces of explosives. Terrorism cannot be ruled out,” Fawad Chaudhry wrote on his verified Twitter handle on Thursday.  “PM Imran Khan is personally supervising all developments. The government is in close coordination with the Chinese Embassy in this regard. We are committed to fighting the menace of terrorism together,” the information minister had added.