Pakistan arrests 4 from an Afghan cell over deadly Islamabad bombing

Pakistan has arrested four members of an Afghan cell over their alleged involvement in a deadly suicide bombing in its capital Islamabad earlier this week, as tensions heighten further between the neighbouring foes.

Tuesday’s attack outside a district court was claimed by a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Those arrested in connection with the bombing, which killed 12 people and wounded dozens, were linked to the Pakistan Taliban, according to Islamabad.

“The network was handled and guided at every step by the … high command based in Afghanistan,” a Pakistani government statement said on Friday, adding that the cell’s alleged commander and three other members were in custody.

“Investigations are continuing, and more revelations and arrests are expected,” it said, identifying the bomber as Usman alias Qari, a resident of Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi told the Senate on Thursday that the bomber was Afghan.

Another one of the suspects, Sajid Ullah, told investigators that Saeed-ur-Rehman, a Pakistan Taliban commander, ordered the attack in Islamabad through the Telegram messaging app.

The commander, also known as Daadullah, sent Ullah photographs of the suicide bomber, an Afghanistan citizen, with orders to receive him after he crossed the border into Pakistan from Afghanistan, where he was a resident of Nangarhar province, the government said.

Daadullah, originally from Pakistan’s Bajaur region, is part of the Pakistan Taliban’s intelligence wing and currently hiding in Afghanistan, the government said.

The men were detained in a joint operation by the nation’s Intelligence Bureau and Counter-Terrorism Department, said the government, which did not detail where the arrests were made.

Islamabad has largely been spared from violence by armed groups in recent years, with the last suicide attack occurring in December 2022.

But the country is facing a resurgence of violence, which officials attribute mainly to armed groups allegedly sheltered on Afghan soil.

Naqvi on Monday claimed that Afghan nationals also took part in an assault this week on Cadet College Wana, a military-linked school in northwest Pakistan. Gunmen stormed the college and began a gun battle that lasted nearly 20 hours. Three soldiers and all the attackers were killed.

The Taliban government has not commented on Pakistan’s allegations, but has expressed “deep sorrow & condemnation” over both attacks.

Pakistan Taliban representatives did not comment on the arrests.

The accusations come amid a sharp deterioration in ties between Islamabad and Kabul, with recent attacks prompting the worst cross-border clashes in years last month.

More than 70 people were killed, including dozens of Afghan civilians, according to the United Nations.

The two countries agreed to a fragile ceasefire, but failed to finalise its details during several rounds of negotiations. Each side blamed the other for the impasse.

This week’s attacks now risk triggering renewed hostilities.

Addressing parliament on Wednesday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif described the Islamabad bombing as a “horrific act of terrorism”.