13 killed, including 9 Chinese, in Pakistan bus accident
Mansehra (Pakistan): A bus carrying Chinese and Pakistani construction workers on a slippery mountainous road in northwest Pakistan fell into a ravine Wednesday, killing at least 13 people, including nine Chinese nationals, officials said.
At least 36 people were also injured in the apparent accident in the Kohistan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said Arif Javed, a deputy district commissioner.
The incident happened on a wet road following an overnight rain but Pakistani officials were still investigating and the Chinese Embassy said in a statement the bus was attacked.
Chinese engineers and construction workers are helping Pakistan build a dam in Kohistan. Javed said the Pakistani and Chinese construction workers were on their way to the project site when the accident happened.
Asim Abbasi, an assistant commissioner in Kohistan, said authorities believe the incident was an accident but were investigating whether there was some type of explosion in the bus. He said a gas cylinder may have exploded and it was possible that explosive material was in the vehicle. Explosives are often used by engineers in construction projects.
So far, we are not sure whether there was a blast in the bus but the bus fell into a ravine and it seems it was an accident," he said.
The Chinese Embassy in a statement called the incident an attack.
Recently, our workers at a business on a certain project in Pakistan were attacked and have suffered deaths and injuries, the statement said. We have notified Chinese citizens in Pakistan to avoid venturing outside unless required by work or business and pay especial care to their safety.
In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said China was shocked by and condemns the bomb attack in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
We mourn over the Chinese and Pakistani personnel killed in the attack and express sympathies to bereaved families and the wounded, Zhao said at a daily news briefing.
We have demanded the Pakistani side get to the bottom of the incident, arrest and strictly punish the assailants as soon as possible, and earnestly protect the safety of Chinese personnel, institutions and projects in Pakistan, Zhao said.
Kamran Bangash, a government spokesman for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, asked the media not to speculate because officers were still investigating. He said helicopters were transporting critically injured persons to hospitals for treatment.
Bangash said investigators would soon brief the media about the cause of the incident. His comments came after local media quoted unnamed sources to report that there was an explosion in the bus carrying Chinese and Pakistani construction workers and security officials.
Road accidents are common in Pakistan, where motorists largely disregard traffic rules and safety standards on damaged roads, particularly in the mountainous terrain in the north. (AP)
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
