ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan will pay $2.58 million in compensation to the families of five Chinese engineers who were killed in March when a suicide bomber targeted the vehicle carrying them in the northwest, the finance ministry said.

The Chinese were attacked in the town of Bisham as they were heading to Dasu Dam, Pakistan’s biggest, where they worked.

The ministry said in a statement Thursday night that the government will also pay $8,950 to the family of the Pakistani driver who also died in the March 26 attack.

The government says the attack was planned in Afghanistan and the bomber was an Afghan citizen. Afghanistan's Taliban government and Pakistani militants have denied the allegations.

The compensation was approved at a meeting led by Finance Minister Mohammad Aurangzeb, the statement said.

Thousands of Chinese are working on projects related to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Some have been attacked in recent years by militants who accuse them of plundering mineral resources.