China has emphasized the importance of regional security to the Taliban. (File)
islamabad:
Pakistan’s military said on Tuesday that a suicide bombing attack was planned to kill five Chinese engineers in neighboring Afghanistan, and that the bomber was also an Afghan national.
In March, a suicide bomber rammed his vehicle into a convoy of Chinese engineers working on a dam project in northwestern Pakistan, killing six people.
“The entire attack was planned in Afghanistan, the vehicle used in the attack was also prepared in Afghanistan, and the suicide bomber was also an Afghan national,” Pakistani military spokesman Maj. Gen. Ahmed Sharif said at a press conference in Islamabad.
Afghanistan’s Taliban government did not respond to requests for comment.
The city of Kabul had previously denied allowing its operatives to use its territory, saying the escalating violence in Pakistan was Islamabad’s internal problem.
The Taliban is also seeking economic ties with China, the first country under the Taliban regime to formally appoint an ambassador to Kabul, and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, where China will invest $65 billion in development and infrastructure. (CPEC).
China has emphasized the importance of regional security to the Taliban.
Ahmed Sharif said four main suspects in the plot targeting Chinese engineers have been arrested.
He added that the safety of the 29,000 Chinese nationals in Pakistan, of whom 2,500 are working in CPEC projects and 5,500 in other development projects, is the top priority of security agencies. Ta.
Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have deteriorated in recent months. Islamabad said Kabul was not doing enough to counter operative groups targeting Pakistan.
Islamabad has even said that some elements of the Taliban are promoting Islamist operatives of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The TTP is not affiliated with the Taliban but has long pledged allegiance to the Afghanistan-based movement.
Last year, Pakistan expelled some 370,000 Afghans living in the country illegally, saying Afghans carried out the majority of suicide bombings against security forces, a charge Kabul denies.
“TTP militants are using Afghan territory to destabilize the security situation in Pakistan,” said Ahmed Sharif, adding that TTP militants also procure advanced weapons from Afghanistan to carry out attacks. He added that
He warned that Pakistan’s military would take action against the operatives and their helpers “with all possible means”, adding that they had previously targeted the operatives’ hideouts inside Afghanistan.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
