-Says Joint investigation team from China and Pakistan working on Dasu incident
-Work on the project expected to resume soon
-Chinese company withdraws notice terminating Pakistani workers
By Our Diplomatic
Correspondent
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Federal Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed said that a joint investigation team of experts from China and Pakistan were working on the Dasu blast incident.
“There are 15 people from their side and 15 from our side probing the blast,” he said, adding that Pakistan Army and intelligence personnel as well as the Chinese investigation team visited the blast site Saturday to probe the case.
The minister said China had appreciated Pakistan for its investigation and cooperation in the Dasu blast, adding that the Chinese had conveyed to Pakistan that both countries should be on the same page.
The Federal Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed rejected reports that work on the Dasu dam had been stopped, adding that all CPEC projects and work on Pakistani dams will not be disrupted.
Meanwhile the spokesperson of Ministry of Foreign Affairs Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri on Sunday said work on Dasu hydropower project would resume soon as both Pakistan and China remained committed to the timely completion of this project and others being undertaken with Chinese cooperation.
He further said matters regarding security and execution of the project were being looked into, and the relevant authorities from Pakistan and China have been in close contact on the same.
More over Pakistani Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed updated China’s Minister for Public Security Zhao Kezhi on the progress made into the investigation into the Dasu Hydropower bus bomb blast.
Pakistani Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed expressed deep sorrow over the incident in which several people had lost their lives in a telephonic discussion lasting more than half an hour on other day.
Both the ministers decided to complete the investigation into the accident as early as possible and expressed that no power on earth could turn relations between the two countries sour.Sheikh Rasheed said both China and Pakistan were iron brothers and time-tested friends.
Pakistani Interior Minister told Kezhi that a high-level probe into the incident was underway on Prime Minister Imran Khan’s instructions, and that soon the investigation would be complete as full cooperation was being extended to the team of Chinese experts investigating the accident.
Rasheed also confirmed that foolproof security would be provided to the Chinese working in Pakistan to prevent any such incidents to the Chinese minister.
On last Wednesday , nine Chinese workers were among 12 people killed when a blast on a bus sent it careering down a ravine in Kohistan.The bus was carrying Chinese engineers, surveyors and mechanical staff to the Dasu dam site in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which is under construction. A further 28 Chinese nationals were also injured.The Chinese embassy in Pakistan in a statement had said that “a certain project of a Chinese firm in Pakistan suffered an attack, which caused the deaths of Chinese nationals”.
Security of Chinese workers has long been an issue of concern in Pakistan, where Beijing has poured in tens of billions of dollars in recent years, and large numbers of Chinese nationals are now based in the country to supervise and build infrastructure projects.
Earlier, CGGC had declared its earlier notice on the termination of contract with Pakistani labour working with it on the Dasu Hydropower Project as “null and void”.
“The notification of employment contract termination published by CGGC DASU HPP Management on July 16, 2021, has not been approved by the competent authority and is declared null and void now,” read a notice issued by the CGGC DASU Hydropower Project on July 17.
Construction work on the project would now resume very soon, said a notice issued on Sunday.
