PAKISTAN Thursday categorically said thorough investigations had revealed that Indian and Afghan intelligence agencies were responsible for the masterminding and execution of the Dasu terror attack.
Twelve people, including Chinese and Pakistani citizens, were killed in the July 14 attack carried out by the TTP at the behest of India’s intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and Afghanistan’s intelligence agency National Directorate of Security (NDS), proving nexus of the two countries in anti-Pakistan activities.
Regrettably, both India and Afghanistan repeatedly try to malign Pakistan on the issue of terrorism but investigations into Dasu incident proved once again that the two countries themselves were hands in glove in sponsoring terrorist activities against Pakistan.
India has known plans to sabotage or undermine progress on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) initiative that has become a sore in New Delhi’s eyes as it opens a fast avenue for progress and development of Pakistan.
Afghanistan too has been funding, training and arming TTP, members of which are operating from safe havens in the neighbouring country, but collusion of NDS in sponsoring a terrorist attack against a CPEC target/Chinese nationals is unfortunate as Beijing has consistently been making endeavours for peaceful resolution of the longstanding crisis in Afghanistan.
Otherwise too, Kabul has also embarked upon an all-encompassing propaganda campaign against Pakistan that is surely aimed at pressurizing Islamabad in the context of the evolving situation in Afghanistan, where the Government forces are surrendering area after area to advancing Taliban.
The dastardly act was surely an attempt to create a wedge between Pakistan and China but credit goes to the investigators, who went deep into the conspiracy and exposed designs of both Kabul and New Delhi.
The conspirators have miserably failed to create differences between Pakistan and China and in, fact, both have renewed their resolve to fight the menace of terrorism together and would continue to work closely to advance the goals set by the CPEC.
China understood the designs of the enemy and that is why its leadership wasted no time in making firm announcements to resume work on the Dasu project and Beijing has also expressed full satisfaction at the investigations carried out by Pakistan.
Islamabad has shared concrete evidence with China as investigations revealed the identity of the suicide-bomber Khalid alias Sheikh, who was trained in Afghanistan and brought to Pakistan for the attack.
The vehicle used in the attack was smuggled through the Chaman border and reached Swat and the whole attack was planned three months ago. Some 100 to 120 high explosives were used in the attack and some others involved in the incident are at large in Afghanistan.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who shared the outcome of the investigations with media-men on Thursday, vowed to take up the issue with the Afghan Government but based on the outcome of sharing of such evidence in the past (with the Kabul Government) there is hardly any expectation of cooperation by the other side to bring the culprits to book.
Pakistan is, in fact, victim of both the propaganda campaign and the state-sponsored terrorism and our agencies will have to work hard to foil designs of the enemies.
The investigation also revealed that the terrorists’ primary target was the Diamer-Bhasha Dam, but when they failed there, they chose Dasu.
This calls for thorough review of the security arrangements for important development projects especially those on which Chinese nationals are working.
The hard work of the investigators exposed those behind the Dasu attack but the real success would be when our agencies are able to prevent such hostile acts beforehand.
The task would become more challenging in case of prolongation of civil war in Afghanistan as in the past as well Pakistan witnessed deterioration in security situation due to involvement of foreign elements.
Pakistan is at an economic take off stage and cannot afford undermining the process of development by the enemy.
Armed forces personnel have already been deployed on the Western border to secure interests of the country in view of the volatile situation in Afghanistan and a wise decision taken not to allow the Afghan refugees to penetrate into different parts of the country to compound economic and law and order problems.
Apart from administrative response to the situation, material relating to important issues and incidents should be shared with Pakistani missions abroad for wider dissemination to expose the designs of the enemy before the world community.
