Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Thursday assured his Chinese counterpart State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi that preliminary investigation into the bus tragedy near Dasu hydropower project in Kohistan shows that it was an accident and “no background of terrorist attacks has been found”.

Qureshi, on behalf of the government and the people of Pakistan, offered condolences to the Chinese side over the heavy Chinese casualties.

“China is Pakistan’s most important friend and most reliable partner, and China’s loss is Pakistan’s loss,” the foreign minister stated.

At least 12 persons, including nine Chinese engineers and two Frontier Corps personnel, died and several others were injured on Wednesday when a bus plunged into a ravine.

He further assured his Chinese counterpart that Pakistan will spare no effort to rescue and treat the wounded, thoroughly investigate the truth of the incident, lose no time in sharing the progress of the investigation with China, and do its utmost to ensure the safety of Chinese personnel in Pakistan.

In his meeting with Qureshi, Wang had expressed shock by the serious Chinese casualties in Pakistan, hoping that the Pakistani side could quickly find out its cause, conduct rescue and treatment work at all costs, deal with the aftermath in time, and prevent similar incidents from happening again.

The Chinese foreign minister had said that if there were fears of the bus tragedy being a terror attack, criminals must be immediately arrested and severely punished.

“Lessons should be learned from the incident, and the security measures for China-Pakistan cooperation projects should be further strengthened to ensure the safe and smooth operation of all projects,” he added.