Pakistan asks IEA to hand over TTP leaders
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi on Sunday called on the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) to hand over leaders of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other members of the group.
At a press conference in Lahore, Naqvi said the attack, in which five Chinese engineers and their Pakistani driver were killed, was planned in Afghanistan and executed with the help of handlers and facilitators based in Pakistan.
He added that the attack was “completely operated” from Afghanistan and planned to specifically target Chinese personnel in Pakistan.
“TTP leadership planned this attack as a flagship project, and enemy intelligence agencies paid them heavily for the attack,” the minister said, without giving more details.
The minister demanded IEA arrest three individuals named Bakhtiar Shah, Qari Abdullah and Khan Lala, along with TTP chief Noor Wali Mehsud, its Malakand Commander Azmatullah and the entire leadership of the group.
“We want good ties with Afghanistan, but for that it is important they arrest these terrorists, prosecute them or hand them to us.”
Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have soured in recent months. Islamabad says Kabul is not doing enough to tackle militant groups targeting Pakistan.
“Pakistan has raised this issue with the interim government of Afghanistan and stressed that they should act against the terrorists operating there, but so far, we have not received any good results,” Naqvi said.
He said that militants were “exploiting the weakness of the interim Afghan government”.
When asked what Pakistan would do if the Afghan government doesn’t cooperate, Naqvi said then “the government will take a unilateral decision”.
The interior minister’s remarks came almost two weeks after Pakistan military spokesman Major-General Ahmed Sharif said the attack was planned in Afghanistan, and the suicide bomber was also an Afghan national.
National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta) coordinator Rai Tahir, who also addressed the press conference, said that the attacker, identified as Muttaqi alias Taqi, hailed from Afghanistan.
Security forces have so far arrested 11 suspects, including the alleged Pakistani handlers.
They were identified as Adil Shehbaz, Shafiq Qureshi, Zahid Qureshi, Nazeer Hussain, Faizullah, Fasihullah, Imran Swati, Sakhaullah, Abdullah, Abdul Rehman and Kamal Khan.
Rai said the attacker had travelled from Afghanistan four months before the attack and lived with his alleged Pakistani handlers — Adil Shazeb and Shafiq Qureshi — who prepared him for the attack.
The alleged suicide bomber was trained in Afghanistan’s Kunar province and was one of the four terrorists who crossed into Pakistan in Nov 2023, the Nacta chief said.
He said a Malakand-based car showroom owner allegedly helped TTP militants in smuggling the car, fitted with explosives, into Pakistan from Chaman.
When Naqvi was asked how a car fitted with explosives managed to travel around 1,000km inside Pakistan without being detected, he said security officials stopped the vehicle for checking, but no suspicion was raised.
He claimed action had been taken against officials over negligence in checking the car thoroughly.
The IEA’s defence ministry has rejected Pakistan’s allegations that Afghans were involved in an attack on Chinese engineers.
“Afghans are not involved in such matters,” Enayatullah Khorazmim, a spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, said earlier this month.
“Blaming Afghanistan for such incidents is a failed attempt to divert attention from the truth of the matter and we strongly reject it,” he added.