Four 'terrorists' involved in Bisham suicide attack on Chinese engineers arrested

• CTD nabbed 10 terrorists, facilitators earlier in this month.
• Killed Chinese engineers working on the Dasu Dam project.
• "Mastermind" Hazrat Bilal also wanted by security forces.

The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) Peshawar has made an important progress in ongoing probe into a fierce suicide attack on Chinese engineers in Bisham city of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Shangla district last month, Geo News reported on Monday.

Four terrorists have been arrested for their involvement in the deadly explosion targeting a car carrying five Chinese citizens, including a woman and its Pakistani driver which was hit by an explosive-laden vehicle by a suicide bomber on March 26.

The arrested terrorists were associated with the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other terrorists of their same network were also identified, the CTD spokesperson said.

Earlier in the month, the CTD had "arrested" more than 10 terrorists and facilitators involved while it emerged that outlawed TTP-affiliated outfits were believed to be involved in the March 26 deadly attack.

The killed Chinese engineers were working on the Dasu Dam project and they were targeted while travelling on the Karakoram Highway.

In the aftermath of the attack, Chinese companies overseeing operations at the sites of the Dasu and Diamer-Bhasha Dams temporarily suspended civil work at both sites owing to security concerns.

Around 991 Chinese engineers were working on both projects, while the local staff has been told to stay at home till further instructions, an official working on the project confirmed to the publication.

The CTD sources say that the terrorist commander, responsible for bringing the suicide bomber to Pakistan from Afghanistan, was also arrested as well as four other facilitators.

Furthermore, the investigation revealed that the explosive-laden vehicle used in the deadly attack was prepared in Afghanistan and was subsequently transported to Dera Ismail Khan's Darazinda via the Pak-Afghan Chaman border crossing in Balochistan.

From there, the vehicle was transported to Chakdara in Lower Dir — via a smuggler of non-custom paid vehicles — for which the driver was paid Rs250,000.

Security forces had also arrested the facilitator responsible for transporting the vehicle from Chaman to Chakdara.

Investigation team sources said that the car was then brought to the incident site on the day of the attack after being parked for 10 days at the cost of Rs500 per day.

The mastermind of the attack, Hazrat Bilal, is also wanted by the security forces for his involvement in the Dasu dam attack, the sources added.

With two accomplices of the suicide bomber already in custody, CTD expects that it will soon arrest Bilal as well. The arrests, as per the CTD sources, were made by utilising the mobile and SIM data of the suicide bomber which he had procured through a third person.