Islamabad | At least five Chinese nationals were among the six persons killed on Tuesday when an explosive-packed vehicle rammed into their bus in Pakistan's troubled northwestern province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, officials said.
The Chinese were working on the Dasu hydropower project.
Several others were injured in the incident that occurred in the Bisham area of Shangla district of the province when a bus en route from Islamabad to Kohistan was hit by a vehicle coming from the opposite direction, police said.
Senior police officer Muhammad Ali Gandapur confirmed the incident and the death toll, adding that apparently it was a suicide attack. “Five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver were killed in the attack,” Gandapur told the media.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi rushed to the Chinese embassy here and met the Chinese ambassador Jiang Zaidong. He offered condolences and also assured the envoy that the Pakistan government would bring the perpetrators to justice.
President Asif Ali Zardari strongly condemned the attack and expressed “deep grief” over the deaths of the Chinese nationals.
“Anti-Pakistan elements will never succeed in damaging Pak-China friendship,” he said in a statement.
Zardari also conveyed his condolences to the families of the Chinese nationals and the neighbouring government.
Meanwhile, police and officials of other security agencies rushed to the scene of the attack and launched a probe into the incident. They also helped to retrieve the dead bodies.
Security arrangements were tightened at the spot and the bodies were being shifted to a hospital, Dawn.com said quoting Bisham Station House Officer (SHO) Bakht Zahir.
"We will investigate from where and how the vehicle of a suicide bomber came and how it happened,” the SHO said.
Shangla is close to Kohistan, where 13 people including nine Chinese were killed in a terrorist attack in 2021.
Thousands of Chinese personnel are working in Pakistan on several projects being carried out under the aegis of the USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.