Pakistan asks Afghanistan to hand over TTP terrorists involved in attack on Chinese workers | World News

According to a media report, Pakistan on Sunday asked the Afghan Taliban government to hand over terrorists from the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) who were involved in a deadly attack on Chinese workers in Islamabad.

Five Chinese were among six people killed in the troubled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in March when a vehicle laden with explosives rammed into their bus. It was the second suicide attack on staff at the China-backed hydropower project since 2021.

The Chinese were working on the Dasu hydropower project, located about 300 km north of Islamabad. The 4,320 MW project is being built by China Gezhouba with World Bank funds.

“Whether Afghanistan brings the terrorists to justice or not, it should hand over the militants to Pakistan,” Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said at a joint press conference attended by officials from the National Counter-Terrorism Authority.

Referring to the investigation report, the minister said that the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) carried out the terrorist attack on Chinese citizens from Afghanistan, Geo TV reported.

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Pakistani Cabinet on Thursday decided to pay $2.58 million to the families of the Chinese workers killed in the attack.

As a gesture of goodwill, compensation of USD 516,000 per person was agreed to for five Chinese workers of the China Gezhouba Group (contractor).

Thousands of Chinese workers are working in Pakistan on several projects under the $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Some of them have been attacked in recent years by militant groups who accused them of exploiting natural resources.

Pakistan has repeatedly called on the Afghan Taliban to take action against the TTP militants who attack Pakistan from Afghan soil. However, Afghanistan is reluctant to take action against the rebels who have fought alongside them against NATO forces in the past.

Pakistan had supported the Afghan Taliban in the hope that once they came to power they would crack down on elements that would use Afghan territory to launch attacks on Pakistan.

But these hopes were dashed when the Afghan Taliban refused to take action and instead called on Pakistan to hold talks with the TTP.

The talks failed and the TTP launched a ruthless terror campaign against Pakistan. The TTP is an umbrella organization of several militant groups that was founded in 2007.