Pakistan: Afghans among 12 detained over suicide attack targeting Chinese engineers

According to a top law enforcement official, Pakistani police have detained over 12 individuals, including Afghan nationals, in relation to a suicide bombing that claimed the lives of five Chinese engineers and their driver last week.

Beijing is the closest regional ally of Islamabad and a major investor in Pakistan’s collapsing economy, but in recent times, Islamist extremists have regularly targeted Chinese nationals.

A suicide bomber struck and destroyed the car carrying the engineers and their Pakistani driver as they were heading towards the Dasu hydroelectric dam, which a Chinese company was building in northwest Pakistan.

Islamabad has accused the Taliban administration in Afghanistan of failing to control terrorists who support them, and has attributed a recent spike in assaults in Pakistan to that country’s neighbor.

The Kabul-based Taliban government has consistently denied providing terrorists with a safe haven.

Senior police sources, however, stated that “initial evidence suggests the involvement” of the Taliban’s local branch in Pakistan, which are believed to have close ties to the Afghan Taliban.

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), as the group is known, has openly denied any role in last Tuesday’s attack.

The bombing sparked a flurry of diplomatic activity from Islamabad, eager to protect the billion-dollar investments Beijing has pledged under its “Belt and Road” initiative.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif visited Chinese workers at the Dasu construction site yesterday and said Pakistan “will not leave any stone unturned” to guarantee their safety.

“I will not rest until we have put in place the best possible security measures,” he told workers.

“I can assure you that our strong hands will catch the culprits very soon.”

(With agency inputs)