Chinese Premier asks Pakistan PM to hold accountable culprits in bus attack
China has increased its diplomatic pressure on Pakistan as Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has urged his Pakistani counterpart to hold accountable the culprits in what he described as a “terrorist attack” on a bus taking Chinese workers, state media said on Friday.
Li, the most senior Chinese politician to have spoken on the incident so far, spoke with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan by phone on Friday, according to state news agency.
An explosion on a bus in northern Pakistan on Wednesday sent it hurtling over a ravine and killed 13 people, including nine Chinese nationals. Li has asked Pakistan to “use all necessary measures” to investigate the incident and hold the culprits accountable, according to state news agency.
China is a close ally and major investor in Pakistan, and various militants opposed to the Pakistani government have in the past attacked Chinese projects. The Chinese workers killed on the bus were employed at the Dasu hydroelectric project, part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a $65 billion investment plan aiming to link western China to the southern Pakistani port of Gwadar. CPEC is part of Beijing’s massive Belt and Road Initiative.
