Islamabad, May 7: Pakistan’s military said on Tuesday that a suicide bomb attack that killed five Chinese engineers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on March 26 was planned in and controlled from Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, and that the bomber was also an Afghan national.
A suicide bomber had rammed a vehicle into a convoy of Chinese engineers working on a dam project in northwest Pakistan on March 26, killing six people.
“The entire attack was planned in Afghanistan, the car used in it was also prepared in Afghanistan, and the suicide bomber was also an Afghan national,” Pakistan military spokesman Major-General Ahmed Sharif told a news conference in Islamabad.
The military’s spokesperson stressed that there is “irrefutable evidence” of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) using Afghanistan’s soil against the country.
Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General (DG) Major General Ahmed Sharif said that the plot for the attack on a convoy in the Bisham tehsil of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Shangla was hatched in Afghanistan, Dawn reported on Tuesday.
He also said that cross-border terrorism from Afghanistan was continuing despite Pakistan’s “vital” role for peace in the neighbouring country.
The spokesperson said that Pakistan will leave no stone unturned to eliminate the terrorist network and the security forces would go to any extent against terrorists.
On the issue of Afghan refugees living inside Pakistan, the military’s spokesperson said: “Millions of Afghans are still living in Pakistan, while the country is fighting against terrorism. Pakistan has helped Afghan refugees, which the world has recognised.”
Highlighting that millions of Afghan citizens continue to reside in Pakistan, the DG ISPR revealed that more than 563,000 illegal foreigners have been repatriated.
The DG ISPR said the law and order situation was deteriorating because of the Afghan citizens.
“Militants are spoiling law and order situation in Balochistan, but the army is [acting as] a wall against the miscreants,” he noted.
