Gold, a drone and 3 dead Chinese workers: Why a Tajikistan strike jolted the China–Pakistan–Afghanistan triangle

A drone strike on a Chinese-linked gold mine in Tajikistan has killed three Chinese workers, with Tajikistan blaming groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan targeting the Taliban.

A drone attack on a Chinese-linked gold mine in southern Tajikistan has killed three Chinese workers and reopened a fierce regional blame game over militant threats emanating from Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

The strike, carried out late on November 26 in Khatlon province near the Afghan border, was the second deadly attack on Chinese workers in the area within a year and has already prompted China to urge the evacuation of its mining staff from the frontier zone.

Tajikistan says the perpetrators were 'criminal groups located in the neighbouring country', a clear reference to Afghanistan, while Pakistan has seized on the incident to publicly accuse the Taliban regime of allowing its territory to be used for cross-border terrorism.

Why is this attack so sensitive now?

The killings come just days after a senior Tajik delegation visited Kabul for the first high-level talks with the Taliban since 2021, and as Pakistan and Afghanistan are locked in a deepening standoff over militant safe havens and border clashes.

According to Tajikistan’s foreign ministry, an unmanned aerial vehicle 'equipped with grenades and firearms' crossed from Afghanistan into the Shamsiddin Shohin district and struck a workers’ camp run by LLC Shohin SM, a gold-extraction firm with Chinese ties.

Three Chinese nationals were killed and one injured, Tajikistan said. China’s embassy in Dushanbe later confirmed the casualties and issued an advisory urging Chinese mining personnel in the border area to 'evacuate as soon as possible' due to repeated threats.

Tajik authorities condemned the incursion as an act by 'terrorist groups' that “continue to commit acts aimed at destabilising the situation in the border regions” and called on Afghan authorities to take “effective measures” to secure the frontier.

The Taliban government in Kabul expressed condolences to China and Tajikistan and 'strongly condemned' the attack, but described the perpetrators only as a 'circle' seeking to create 'chaos, instability, and distrust between countries in the region'.

Kabul pledged information-sharing, technical cooperation and joint assessments with Tajikistan to identify who was behind the strike, according to Taliban Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hafiz Zia Ahmad.

Pakistan’s Foreign Office took a much harder line, explicitly linking the attack to threats 'emanating from Afghanistan' and saying Afghan territory “must not be used for terrorism against its neighbours or any other country”.

“Pakistan unequivocally condemns this cowardly attack on Chinese nationals,” it said, adding that the use of armed drones 'underlines the gravity of the threat' and that Pakistan 'fully understand[s] and share[s] the grief and anguish' of its 'Chinese friends and Tajik partners,'

Islamabad has repeatedly accused the Taliban of harbouring militants from Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other groups it blames for a surge in attacks on Pakistani soil since 2021, while Kabul counters that Pakistan shelters anti-Taliban outfits and violates Afghan sovereignty.

The Tajik attack also follows a separate incident in the US, where an Afghan national allegedly shot at American security personnel — another case Pakistan quickly cited as proof of 'transnational threats' from Afghanistan.

The drone attack mirrors a November 2024 assault in the same sector, when armed groups crossing from Afghanistan killed one Chinese worker and injured five others at another Chinese-operated site, prompting Dushanbe to demand greater accountability from Kabul.

Tajikistan, one of the poorest of the former Soviet republics, has become heavily dependent on Chinese capital. Beijing is now its largest investor, with cumulative FDI of about $2.87 billion since 2007 and a strong focus on mining, transport and energy.

Chinese giants such as Zijin Mining and joint ventures like TALCO Gold dominate the country’s gold and rare-earth extraction, particularly in remote, mountainous border regions. The projects employ thousands of Chinese expatriates but have fuelled local anger over environmental damage and opaque debt deals.

(With inputs from AFP)