Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed on Saturday briefed China’s Minister for Public Security Zhao Kezhi on the progress made in the investigation into the Dasu Hydropower bus bomb blast, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

In a telephonic discussion lasting more than half an hour on Saturday, Sheikh Rasheed expressed deep sorrow with the Chinese minister over the incident in which several people had lost their lives.

Both the ministers agreed on completing the investigation into the accident as early as possible.

Both of them expressed the optimism that no power on earth could turn relations between the two countries sour.

Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed said both China and Pakistan were iron brothers and time-tested friends.

He 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 assured the Chinese minister that foolproof security would be provided to the Chinese working in Pakistan.

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Zhao Kezhi told the interior minister that he was talking to him on the bus accident on the directives of Chinese President Xi Jinping, and that people of China were grieved over the loss of precious lives from both the countries in the accident.

On Wednesday last, 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.

Reporter Awais Kiani