Pakistan says a bomb attack was planned in Afghanistan that killed five Chinese engineers in March

The Pakistani military said on Tuesday that a suicide bombing was planned in neighboring Afghanistan that killed five Chinese engineers in March, and that the attacker was also an Afghan national.

The suicide bomber rammed a 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 car used in it was also prepared in Afghanistan and the suicide bomber was also an Afghan national,” Pakistani military spokesman Maj. Gen. Ahmed Sharif said at a news conference in Islamabad.

The Taliban-led Afghan government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kabul had previously said increasing violence in Pakistan was a domestic problem for Islamabad and opposed use of its territory by militants.

The Taliban is also seeking economic ties with China, the first country to formally appoint an ambassador to Kabul under Taliban rule, and has said it supports Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

China has stressed the importance of security in the region to the Taliban, including a public agreement by all three countries in May 2023 at a meeting in Islamabad to strengthen counterterrorism cooperation, according to experts and statements from Beijing.

Sharif said four main suspects in the conspiracy against the Chinese engineers had been arrested.

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Five Chinese engineers were killed in a suicide bombing in Pakistan

Five Chinese engineers were killed in a suicide bombing in Pakistan

He added that the safety of 29,000 Chinese nationals in Pakistan, of whom 2,500 were working on CPEC projects and 5,500 on other development projects, was a top priority for security institutions.

Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have deteriorated in recent months. Islamabad said the Taliban-led government in Kabul is not doing enough to crack down on militant groups targeting Pakistan.

Islamabad has even gone so far as to say that some elements of the Taliban support the Islamist militants of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) – which is not affiliated with the Taliban but has long pledged loyalty to the Afghanistan-based movement.

“TTP militants are using the territory of Afghanistan to destabilize the security situation in Pakistan,” Sharif said, adding that TTP militants were also procuring advanced weapons from Afghanistan to carry out the attacks.

He warned that the Pakistani military would use “all means” against the militants and their supporters.

In March, Pakistan said it had attacked militant hideouts in Afghanistan, with Taliban officials claiming they were airstrikes. Taliban-led security forces responded with heavy gunfire on Pakistani security posts on the border.