Suspending work at Dasu Dam in Pakistan after blast kills engineers: Chinese company

Islamabad [Pakistan], July 17 (ANI): A Chinese company that is constructing the Dasu dam in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) on Saturday said it decided to suspend the work after a blast in the northern province that killed several engineers.

On Wednesday, a passenger bus had exploded in KP’s Upper Kohistan district, killing 13 people, including nine Chinese engineers. The explosion took place when the bus was on its way to Dasu.

“Owing to the explosion attack occurred on July 14th 2021, which has caused extremely heavy casualties, CGGC DASU HPP Management has been forced to suspend the construction of the DASU Hydropower Project,” the Chinese company CGGC said in a statement, as quoted by Sputnik.

The project envisages the construction of a hydroelectric plant on a river near Dasu as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

On Friday, China asked Pakistan to bring to justice perpetrators of “terrorist attack” in the neighboring country. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang raised the issue with Prime Minister Imran Khan during a phone call, where he stressed the need for Pakistan to “use all necessary measures” to probe the incident and hold the culprits accountable.

Earlier today, Pakistan Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed said the perpetrators of the Dasu bus explosion would be exposed and brought to justice at any cost.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, he said a high-level investigation into the incident was underway. He also informed that a 15-member Chinese team had also arrived in Pakistan to probe the Dasu blast. (ANI)