Kabul rejects Pakistani claim attack on Chinese engineers planned in Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD

The Afghan Taliban administration Wednesday rejected Pakistani claims that Afghan soil was used for planning an attack on Chinese engineers in March.

Pakistani army spokesman Maj. Gen. Ahmed Sharif had said that the attack on Chinese nationals on March 26 in the Bisham area of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province was "planned" in Afghanistan.

“This suicide bomb attack,” he said, “was also linked to Afghanistan as its planning was made there.”

Five Chinese engineers and a Pakistani national were killed in the attack.

“Both the terrorists and their facilitators were controlled from Afghanistan, while the suicide bomber was also an Afghan national,” the director general of Inter-Services Public Relations told a news conference on Tuesday.

However, rejecting the accusations, interim Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Enayatullah Khwarazmi said: “No Afghan nationals were involved in the attack.”

"The killing of Chinese citizens in an area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which is under tight security cover of the Pakistani army shows the weakness of the Pakistani security agencies or co-operation with the attackers. In both cases, the responsibility rests with the Pakistani government," he said in a statement posted on X.

He accused Islamabad of diverting attention by blaming Kabul and said: "We strongly reject it."

"The Islamic Emirate (Taliban) has assured China on this matter and the country has also understood the fact that Afghans are not involved in such issues,” he said.

The ministry spokesman claimed that the interim Taliban administration has evidence of Daesh coming to Afghanistan from the territory of Pakistan, adding that: “Pakistan's territory (was) being used against us for which Pakistan should answer.”