China has called on Pakistan to investigate the causes of a bus explosion that killed at least 13 people, including nine Chinese nationals, stoking Beijing’s fears of a militant threat in the region.
The blast took place on Wednesday on a vehicle carrying more than 40 people through a mountainous region of north-west Pakistan on the way to the Dasu dam, a $1.9bn hydropower project backed by China Gezhouba Group, a state-owned construction firm.
“If it is a terrorist attack, the perpetrators must be arrested immediately and severely punished,” Wang Yi, China’s top government diplomat, told Shah Mahmood Qureshi, his Pakistan counterpart, during a meeting held late on Wednesday evening in Tajikistan.