TV grab of the Dasu terror attack on July 14, 2021
Beijing/New Delhi/Islamabad: Following Pakistan’s claims yesterday that the Dasu terrorist attack was with the support of Indian and Afghan intelligence agencies, which India termed as “absurd comments”, China today expressed appreciation to Islamabad’s “active efforts” and stated that the Pakistani side’s investigation had seen a “major progress within a short period of time”.
“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,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying, said today.
In New Delhi, the Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi while responding to media queries on the allegations made by Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, said today: “We have seen reports on the absurd comments made by Foreign Minister of Pakistan on the incident in Dasu.
This is yet another attempt by Pakistan to malign India, in a bid to deflect international attention from its role as the epicenter of regional instability and a safe haven for proscribed terrorists.”
Pakistan had yesterday claimed that its investigation into the case of the Dasu terrorist attack showed that the planning for the terrorist attack was done in Afghanistan and the attack was executed by the Swat chapter of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Islamabad had claimed that the attacker was trained in Afghanistan and the vehicle used in the attack was brought from Afghanistan to Pakistan.
Some of those involved in the attack have been arrested in Pakistan while others were at large in Afghanistan, the Pakistani Foreign Minister had claimed. He had alleged that the terrorist network the attacker was associated with had received support from Indian and Afghan intelligence agencies.
India, while refuting Pakistan’s allegation, made it loud and clear that New Delhi has always been at the forefront of global efforts against terrorism in partnership with the international community, which is well aware of Pakistan’s credentials when it comes to terrorism. “Such desperate attempts by Pakistan at peddling lies and propaganda will therefore find few takers.”
China, whose concern is the thousands of Chinese personnel working on the USD 60 billion China-Pakistan installations, projects and personnel in Pakistan, stated it pays great attention to Pakistan’s investigations and appreciates Pakistan’s active efforts. While pointing out that further investigation by Pakistan was still ongoing at the moment, Beijing said both countries will keep strengthening security cooperation mechanisms to ensure the safety of Chinese projects, people and institutions in Pakistan.
It may be mentioned that 13 people including nine Chinese engineers were killed in in last month’s suicide attack on a shuttle bus in the Dasu area of Upper Kohistan district in Pakistan’s restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where a Chinese company is building a 4,300-megawatt hydropower project on the Indus river.
Incidentally, Chunying acknowledged that terrorism is the common enemy of all mankind. While he said China firmly opposes any force using terrorism to seek geopolitical gains, it may be mentioned that only last month on July 28-29, it had hosted a Taliban delegation from Afghanistan in hope that the militant group will make a clean break with all terrorist organizations including the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM). However, the Taliban forces are still on a rampage in Afghanistan and when the reports last came in, was inching closer to Afghan capital Kabul and had so far taken control over 18 provincial capitals across Afghanistan including Logar province, just about 90 km from Kabul.
China today 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.
– global bihari bureau
