(Bloomberg) -- Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan — a local offshoot of neighboring Afghanistan’s Taliban - planned and executed a suicide bomb attack that killed five Chinese engineers in March, according to Pakistan’s military spokesman.

The bombing was planned by the TTP based in Afghanistan and the suicide bomber was an Afghan national, Major General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said in a televised news conference on Tuesday. Pakistan has formally protested to the Taliban government 12 times after finding the offshoot based in Afghanistan was behind several attacks in the South Asian country in the past few years, he said.

Chaudhry said about 2500 Chinese are working on different projects under Belt and Road Initiative’s China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

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