RASC News Agency: In response to former U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement regarding the arrest of the mastermind behind the Kabul International Airport suicide bombing, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has stated that the individual responsible for the attack was an Afghanistani national. On Wednesday, March 5, Sharif welcomed Trump’s acknowledgment of Islamabad’s cooperation in capturing the perpetrator and reiterated Pakistan’s unwavering commitment to counterterrorism efforts in partnership with Washington.
According to Sharif, the suspect was apprehended along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Previously, Trump had announced that the mastermind behind the devastating bombing at Kabul Airport’s Abbey Gate had been arrested with Pakistan’s assistance and was scheduled for immediate transfer to Washington. Meanwhile, sources within Trump’s administration have disclosed to the news outlet Axios that the suspect has been identified as Mohammad Sharif, also known as Jafar, a high-ranking leader of ISIS operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The capture of Mohammad Sharif was executed through a joint operation involving the CIA and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The suicide bombing, which occurred during the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 at the Abbey Gate of Kabul International Airport, claimed the lives of 170 Afghanistani civilians and 13 U.S. service members. At the time, the Taliban under the Biden administration claimed to have neutralized the mastermind behind the Kabul airport attack, a move that President Biden publicly recognized as a significant counterterrorism achievement.
