Rawalpindi [Pakistan], May 7 : The Pakistani Army has alleged that the plan to kill the Chinese engineers was hatched in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, Dawn reported on Tuesday.
Five Chinese engineers were killed in a suicide attack on a convoy in Bisham tehsil of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Shangla on March 26.
"A sad incident took place on March 2 in Bisham where a suicide bomber targeted a car of Chinese engineers working on Dasu dam, as a result of which, five Chinese citizens and a Pakistan got killed," Pakistan's Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General (DG) Maj-Gen Ahmed Sharif said.
"This suicide bombing also connects to across the border [in Afghanistan]; the planning of this terrorism [act] was done in Afghanistan. Terrorists and their facilitators were also being controlled from Afghanistan and the suicide bomber was also an Afghan [national]," he added.
Dawn reported that Gen Sharif said the army strongly condemned "this ugly game of terrorism" and is "taking all necessary actions to bring its facilitators to justice."
The attack, which took place on March 26 in Bisham City in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Shangla district, claimed the lives of five Chinese engineers along with one Pakistani citizen.
The army spokesperson's press conference came just two days before May 9 -- a day that holds significant importance in the country's political landscape as it was on this day last year when military installations came under attack following PTI founder Imran Khan's arrest, which formed the basis of a severe state crackdown against him and his party.
In the question and answer sessions, Gen Sharif was asked about May 9, to which he said: "Firstly, May 9 is not just the Pak Army's case but the entire country."
If, in any country, an attack is launched on its army, symbols of its martyrs are insulted, its founder's house is set on fire, hatred is created between its army and public, and if the people behind it are not brought to justice, then there is a question mark on that country's justice system.
"We believe that if we have to maintain trust in the justice system of Pakistan, then May 9 perpetrators -- both the doers and those commanding them -- must be sentenced according to the Constitution and the law," he said.
"Nothing is hidden about May 9. The public and the army and we all have irrefutable evidence. All of us saw this incident unfolding, we all saw how everyone was [brainwashed] against the army, its leadership, agencies, institutions through lies and propaganda," he added.