A top Pakistani official on Thursday held a meeting with Afghanistan’s deputy interior minister, Muhammad Nabi Omari, in Kabul and shared with him findings of a March 26 suicide attack in northwest Pakistan that killed five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver, the Pakistani foreign office said.
The five Chinese workers were killed when a suicide bomber rammed his car into their vehicle while they were on their way to the Dasu hydropower project in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.
Islamabad blamed the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) for the attack in KP’s Besham city and Pakistan’s interior minister and counter-terrorism chief last week said the bombing was coordinated by TTP members from Afghanistan, demanding Kabul to arrest and hand over the suspects involved in the deadly attack to Pakistan.
Afghanistan’s care-taker government has denied it was in any way responsible.
On Thursday, Pakistan’s interior secretary, Muhammad Khurram Agha, traveled to Kabul on the special directives of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and held a detailed meeting with the Afghan interior deputy interior minister, according to the Pakistani foreign office.
“The Secretary Interior shared the findings of the Government of Pakistan into the Besham attack and sought Afghanistan’s assistance in apprehending the perpetrators,” the foreign office said in a statement. “The Afghan side also agreed to examine the findings of the investigation and expressed the resolve to work with the Pakistan side to take the investigation to its logical conclusion.”
The March 26 assault was the third major one in a little over a week on the Chinese interests in Pakistan.
It followed a Mar. 20 attack on a strategic port used by China in the southwestern province of Balochistan, where Beijing has poured billions of dollars into infrastructure projects, and a March. 25 assault on a naval air base, also in the southwest. Both attacks were claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the most prominent of several separatist groups in Balochistan.
The Pakistani foreign office said the Afghan side reiterated its commitment to prevent the use of their soil for any militant activity against other countries, including Pakistan. “The two sides agreed to remain engaged to confront the threat posed by terrorism to regional countries and to address the concerns raised by Pakistan,” it added.
Meanwhile, the deputy interior minister spoke about the good intentions of the Islamic Emirate and said that, while Afghanistan wants peace for itself, it also has good wishes for others. He further added that “We do not believe in “evil” politics.
“Our intentions and actions are to promote peace in the region for the benefit of ourselves and everyone,” said Omari.
Omari termed the “Bisham terrorist attack” as a tragic incident and said that, all of us should take responsibility for the security of our areas and instead of diverting issues, we should facilitate in real cooperation.
“The Islamic Emirate is committed to not allowing others to use its territory against anyone and we wish the same from others,” added Omari.
Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks in its western regions that border Afghanistan, particularly after the TTP called off its months-long, fragile truce with the Pakistani government in November 2022.
