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Six killed in suicide attack on Chinese engineers in Pakistan

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(Last Updated On: March 26, 2024)

A suicide bomber rammed a vehicle into a convoy of Chinese engineers working on a dam project in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, killing six people, police said, the third major attack on Chinese interests in the South Asian country in a week, Reuters reported.

The first two attacks hit an airbase and a strategic port in the southwest province of Balochistan where China is investing billions in infrastructure projects.

The engineers were on their way from Islamabad to their camp at the dam construction site in Dasu in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Mohammad Ali Gandapur, the regional police chief, told Reuters.

“Five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver were killed in the attack,” Gandapur said.

Dasu is the site of a major dam and the area has been attacked in the past. A blast on a bus killed 13 people, including nine Chinese nationals, in 2021.

Chinese engineers have been working on a number of projects Pakistan with Beijing investing over $65 billion in infrastructure projects as part of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) under its wider Belt and Road initiative.

No one claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attack, nor was there a claim for the 2021 attack. Pakistan is home to twin insurgencies – one by Islamists and the other ethnic militants seeking secession, read the report.

While Chinese interests are primarily targeted by the ethnic militants seeking to push Beijing out of mineral-rich Balochistan, they generally operate in the country’s south and southwest – far from the site of Tuesday’s attack.

Islamists mostly operate in the country’s northwest in the area the convoy was attacked.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police had reached the spot and started relief operations, Reuters reported.

A separate police source told Reuters the convoy was carrying staff of the construction firm China Gezhouba Group Company (CGGC) working on the Dasu hydropower project – the same company targeted in 2021.

Construction work ceased for months after that attack.

China’s embassy in Islamabad did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

The attacks come a week before Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is expected to fly to Beijing, according to a source in the Prime Minister’s Office. It will be Sharif’s first visit since taking office following February elections.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar condemned the attack, and said the country would continue to fight back against militants.

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Pakistan rejects IEA’s allegations of Daesh using its territory against Afghanistan

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(Last Updated On: May 10, 2024)

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan on Thursday rejected the statements of the Islamic Emirate regarding the use of Pakistan’s soil against Afghanistan by Daesh, calling the remarks as “unwarranted and irresponsible.”

Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, spokesperson of Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a press conference that instead of such statements, the Afghan authorities should take effective action against all terror groups, based in Afghanistan.

Earlier, the Pakistan Army claimed that last month’s suicide attack that killed five Chinese nationals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had been planned in Afghanistan and had been carried out by an Afghan.

In reaction, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense of Afghanistan, Inayatullah Khwarazmi, said that in an area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which is under the security of the Pakistan Army, the killing of Chinese nationals is either the weakness of the security institutions or their cooperation with the attackers.

He also said: “We have cases where the Daesh entered Afghanistan from Pakistan, and Pakistani soil was used against our soil, and the attacks are planned in that country.”

Pakistan has repeatedly claimed that Afghan soil is being used in attacks against Pakistan, but this was the first time the Islamic Emirate accused Pakistan of not preventing Daesh from entering Afghanistan.

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Afghans will have a good future under the shadow of Islamic system: Haqqani

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(Last Updated On: May 10, 2024)

Acting Minister of Interior Sirajuddin Haqqani has said in a meeting with the European Union envoy in Kabul that Afghans will have a good future in peace and under the shadow of the Islamic system.

According to a statement released by the Ministry of Interior on Friday, Haqqani, in his meeting with Raffaella Iodice, the European Union’s Chargé d’affaires to Afghanistan, said that Afghans will work hard, endure hardships and will be on the path of progress.

The EU envoy expressed her hope for continued peace and a better future for Afghans, according to the statement.

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Kabir urges Panjshiris to encourage their sons in exile to return home

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(Last Updated On: May 9, 2024)

Mawlavi Abdul Kabir, the political deputy prime minister, urged Panjshir residents to encourage their sons living in neighboring countries to return home as the Islamic Emirate has no enmity with anyone.

At a gathering in Panjshir, attended by senior IEA officials, Kabir said that there is currently no space for ethnic and linguistic discrimination as well as hypocrisy in Afghanistan.

He stressed that all Afghans should work together for the construction, development and prosperity of the country.

According to him, IEA’s political and commercial relations with the world are secure and the government is committed to the development and reconstruction of Afghanistan and is doing its best to gain self-sufficiency.

At this gathering, the IEA’s minister of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, said that illegal acts in the country have reached zero and that Daesh does not exist in the country. He also said the people of Panjshir will not be deceived by biased people.

“Currently, there is no corruptor and there is no Daesh fighter in Afghanistan, and no one can provide proof [of their existence]. We are one nation. Our religion and beliefs are one,” said Hanafi.

Some residents of Panjshir also said that they support the Islamic Emirate and will share their challenges with the authorities.

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