9 Chinese engineers among 13 killed in 'attack' on bus in northwest Pakistan

The incident took place in Dasu area of Upper Kohistan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where Chinese engineers and construction workers are helping Pakistan build a dam which is part of the USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), officials said.

At least 13 people, including nine Chinese nationals and two Frontier Corps soldiers, died and 39 others injured when the bus carrying Chinese engineers and workers to the site of the under construction Dassu Dam exploded, Deputy Commissioner Upper Kohistan Muhammad Arif Yusafzai said.

The bus fell into a deep Ravine after the explosion, the official said.

The injured were admitted to nearby hospitals.

Speaking in the National Assembly, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan called it a ''cowardly attack'' and said it would ''not divert attention from the special initiatives between Pakistan and its neighbours.'' Awan said he would ask Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed to offer a briefing on the country’s security situation and to keep this House in the loop about the occurrence.

No group or individual has claimed the blast yet, China's official Xinhua news agency reported from Islamabad.

In Beijing, China condemned the ''bomb attack'' on the bus near the Dasu hydropower plant and called on the Pakistan government to give “severe punishment” to the perpetrators behind it.

Asked for details of the casualties and China’s reaction to the incident at a media briefing in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said China expresses its condemnation of the ''bomb attack'' in Pakistan resulting in the casualties of the Chinese personnel.

He, however, did not provide any official figures of casualties.

''China is shocked by and condemns the bomb attack in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province which caused Chinese casualties, mourns for the Chinese and Pakistani personnel killed in the attack, and expresses sympathy to their families and the injured,'' he said.

''Pakistani security forces have taken measures to control the situation, properly transfer and treat the wounded,'' Zhao said. ''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,'' he added.

Thousands of Chinese personnel have been deployed in Pakistan to work on a host of projects being carried out under the aegis of the CPEC.

An eyewitness claimed that there was a loud noise and the bus bounced in the air and fell down, BBC Urdu service reported.