Chinese firm to continue work on Dasu dam as notification of Pakistani staff removal withdrawn

GILGIT – Chinese company CGGC Dasu HPP Saturday withdrew the notification regarding the removal of Pakistani employees working on the Dasu Hydropower Project.

Reports quoting Chinese officials cited that the firm also issued a new notification due to the efforts of the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) chairman and ensured to start working on the Dasu project soon.

New notification of the China Gezhouba Group Corporation stated that the higher authorities had rejected its decision to discontinue work on the project and ended the employment contract with the Pakistani staffers.

Earlier, the Chinese company halted its operations on the Dasu project and fired all Pakistani staff issuing a notification on July 16, 2021. The Chinese company had stopped work after the deadly bomb blast a few days ago in which several Chinese engineers had been killed.

The company also terminated the contract of all Pakistanis working on the project. The terminated Pakistani workers will be given gratuity, the current month’s salary, and 14-day pay, the notification of the company cited.

On Saturday, a Chinese investigation team visited the site where nine Chinese workers were killed in a terror attack earlier this week. Nine Chinese citizens along with four Pakistani citizens were killed while more than two dozen others sustained injuries when their passenger coach plunged into a deep ravine after an explosion.

Initially, the Foreign Office termed the incident as an accident due to gas leakage, but later it confirmed the traces of explosives at the site of the incident.

Pakistan, China agree on a joint investigation

Today, an investigating team of Chinese security officials will visit Dasu today as part of a joint probe into the incident to ascertain the facts.

It comes after Pakistan and China agreed to complete the investigation into the Dasu bus accident that left 13 people, including nine Chinese nationals, dead.

The agreement came during a telephonic discussion between China's Minister of Public Security Zhao Kezhi and Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed which continued for over half an hour. They discussed the tragic incident in the Upper Kohistan region.

This is the second high-level contact in two days after Prime Minister Imran Khan’s call to Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, who had assured him that all-out efforts will be made to investigate the incident.

Expressing sorrow over the loss of precious Pakistani lives, Zhao said he has called Rasheed on the direction of Chinese President Xi Jinping.