PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) on Monday confirmed that the terrorist attack in Besham that killed five Chinese nationals was supported by Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
A report submitted by the CTD said authorities had caught the main facilitator who brought the suicide bomber from Afghanistan. It added that a vehicle loaded with explosives was transported via Chaman to DaraZinda town in Dera Ismail Khan district for Rs 0.25 million.
CTD sources also said that the used vehicle was not paid for by customs and was parked at a petrol station for a fee of Rs 500 per day. Two facilitators were also arrested from Balochistan.
The report added that the CTD had arrested over a dozen militants and facilitators of the Dasu suicide attack. Several raids were also conducted to arrest the reported mastermind of the attack, Hazrat Bilal, who is also wanted in previous attacks on Chinese engineers.
Earlier, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had directed a thorough joint investigation into the Besham terror attack.
A suicide bomber in a vehicle attacked a convoy of Chinese engineers in the remote Besham area of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on Tuesday, killing six people.
The Chinese engineers were on their way from Islamabad to their camp at Dasu – District Headquarters of Upper Kohistan District K-P. Their vehicle was hit by an explosive-laden vehicle coming from the opposite direction near Lahore Nala on the Karakoram Highway.
The Chinese engineers’ vehicle was thrown off a mountainous road into a deep ravine by the impact of the explosion, killing all six on board, including five Chinese engineers and their Pakistani driver. Security forces arrived at the scene, closed the strategic highway to traffic on both sides and launched an investigation.
