WASHINGTON-An alleged senior planner of the Kabul airport suicide bombing that killed 13 US members at the chaotic withdrawal from the United States from Afghanistan was placed in police custody and was brought to the United States to face accusations, President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday evening.
On Wednesday, Pakistani intelligence officers confirmed the arrest and declared that the suspect had been captured in the province carried out in the country of Balutchistan in the country near the border with Afghanistan after several operations were not seized.
Trump, in a joint convention address, said that he was “happy to announce that we have just learned the best terrorist responsible for this atrocity. And he is on the way here to face the rapid sword of American justice.”
The White House identified the man as Muhammed Sharifullah and described him as having “orchestrated the attack on the abbey”. FBI director Kash Patel, who attended Trump’s address, posted on the X social media platform that arrest was “one more step from the justice for these American heroes and their families”.
During the horrible attack in August 2021, two suicide bombers and armed men attacked crowds of Afghans flocating to Kabul airport in the decreasing days of air transport for those who were fleeing from taking control of the country’s Taliban.
The bombing of the abbey in the last days of the withdrawal of Afghanistan killed 13 members of the American service and 170 Afghans, while injuring more. He sparked a widespread criticism of the congress and undermined public confidence in the administration of Biden.
A senior American official said that Sharifullah, also known as Jafar, had been arrested at the end of last month at the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan by Pakistani officials. The American police, including the FBI, interviewed it during the weekend.
During the interrogation, the manager said that the suspect had confessed his role in the attack – nicknamed Abbey Gate Attack after the airport door where it happened – and also an attack from March 2024 in Moscow which was led by the subsidiary of the Islamic State group, known as the Islamic province of the State of Khorasan or Isis -K, and several attacks in Iran.
It is not immediately known what the accusations would face Sharifullah. The American official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the case against Sharifullah before he was revealed, said the accusation documents would be not sealed on Wednesday. He was in transit in the United States while Trump spoke on Tuesday evening.
The Pakistani intelligence officers, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to the media, said that Sharifullah joined the militant group in 2016 and was involved in more than 20 attacks across Afghanistan.
He was arrested in 2019 by the Afghan government supported by the United States at the time, but escaped from prison on August 15, 2021, when the Taliban took Kabul.
Pakistani officials said Sharifullah had planned the bombing behind bars with other militant personalities. “He stayed on the run in the border areas of Balutchistan until his arrest thanks to a joint intelligence sharing operation between Pakistan and the United States,” they added.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif thanked Trump for having “recognized and appreciated” the role of the country in the efforts to fight terrorism in Afghanistan.
“We will continue to associate ourselves closely with the United States to ensure regional peace and stability,” said Sharif on the social platform X.
From Kabul, the Taliban chief spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid, refused to comment beyond saying that the arrest “on Pakistani soil” of an Afghan national and member of the Islamic State group shows that the figures “took refuge and established refuge” inside Pakistan.
“This question has nothing to do with Afghanistan,” said Mujahid. The affiliate of the regional Islamic State is a rival group of Afghan Taliban.
The Ministry of Justice did not immediately return an email asking for comments
Last year, an examination by the US central command concluded that the suicide attack was not avoidable. The American army previously identified the bomber as Abdul Rahman al-Logari, an Islamic State activist who had been in an Afghan prison but was released by the Taliban while the group took control of the country that summer.
Trump had repeatedly condemned the role of Biden in the withdrawal of Afghanistan on the campaign track and blamed Biden for the attack on the abbey. The official said that Sharifullah’s arrest intervened after the new coordination of the US intelligence community, an increase in information sharing and pressure on regional partners to bring officials of the attack to account since Trump’s Escure.
