Pakistan’s foreign minister blames Afghanistan and India for suicide attack on Chinese workers
Speaking at a press briefing Thursday, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi alleged the attack had been carried out by “the Pakistani Taliban out of Afghanistan,” with the approval of Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security and India’s Research and Analysis Wing.
Qureshi said Pakistan would be facilitating and assisting China to “punish those behind this attack,” and putting in a request to the Afghan government to “hand over the three planners” who he alleged were still operating out of the country.
“China and Pakistan will follow the important consensus reached by the leaders on both sides, ascertain all the facts and truth, and hold the culprits accountable and bring them to justice,” said spokeswoman Hua Chunying.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua said Thursday both countries would keep strengthening security cooperation mechanisms to ensure the safety of Chinese projects, people and institutions in Pakistan.
Hua also said that China firmly opposes any organization using terrorism to seek geopolitical gains and called on countries in the region to collaborate in eradicating all terrorist organizations so as to uphold common security and development interests of all countries.
In recent years, Islamist militants have attacked Chinese nationals and their interests in the Pakistani province of Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan.
CNN’s Philip Wang in Atlanta and Nectar Gan in Hong Kong contributed to this report.
