Pakistan police link deadly attacks on Chinese workers to Taliban affiliate’s ‘broken switch’ terror cell

Both attacks, which targeted employees of China Gezhouba Group Co (CGGC) working on a dam, are believed to have been carried out by the same faction of the Pakistani Taliban – led by militants originally from the Kohistan region – three senior police officers told This Week In Asia on condition of anonymity as they are not allowed to speak to the media.

Using a SIM card recovered from the site of the attack on March 26, police traced the suicide bomber’s movements from Khost city in eastern Afghanistan to the Chaman border crossing in Pakistan’s western Balochistan province.

Police believe the attacker was an Afghan national, but are carrying out DNA testing to confirm their suspicions.

From Chaman, he is thought to have driven more than 1,000km north to the town of Chakdara, passing through a number of security checkpoints in areas that have long been plagued by attacks without the explosives-laden car once being searched.

Police say the bomber was met at a car showroom in Chakdara by Shafiq Ahmed, who worked at a government school in Kohistan. On March 15, Ahmed accompanied the bomber from Chakdara to Besham, near where the attack was later carried out.

Parking the vehicle overnight at a local petrol pump, they drove the next day to Oghi district, a neighbouring remote area notorious as a hideout for criminals and terrorists, to meet terrorism cell chief Hazrat Bilal, another Kohistan native.

Bilal was also involved in the July 2021 attack, police said, but he has evaded arrest by regularly changing his appearance.

The suicide bomber and his guide drove back into Besham at 6.17am on March 26 and lay in wait for the CGGC convoy, which they knew was coming because workers had been transported between Dasu and Islamabad every