TARIQ LODHI
By now, the world is fully aware of handing over of the Islamic State in Khorasan Province ISIS-K leader, Sharifullah, alias Jafar, in second fortnight of Feb-2025, from Pak-Afghan border area. Sharifullah, now in USA’s custody has been charged under sections of 18 USC, subsection 2339B, for providing and conspiring to provide material support for terrorism, resulting in death, in the Abbey Gate incident in the 26-Aug-2021 Suicide Bombing that had killed13-American military personnel, and 160-Afghan non-combatants. The suicide bomber was later identified as Abdul Rehman al-Logari, as ISIS-K claimed the responsibility. Sharifullah was due to be produced before the East District of Virginia court, on 05-Mar-2025.
Sharifullah, an Afghan national, had joined ISIS-K in 2016, and was subsequently arrested and imprisoned by the then Afghan Government. He was released in the first week of Aug-2021, a time when Afghan government was in process of releasing 5,000 prisoners under the Doha Agreement, and Taliban were advancing towards Kabul, and a scramble to leave Afghanistan had already begun. According to his confessional statements made before USA authorities, upon release, Sharifullah was provided a motorcycle by ISIS-K, and was directed to conduct hostile survey of routes to the Abbey’s Gate entrance of Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport, that could be used as appropriate area for conducting suicide attack with minimum of resistance on the way. He also confessed about the suicide attack on the Canadian Embassy in Kabul in month of Ramadan, on 20-Jun-2016, during which 15 persons, including ten (10) security guards of the Embassy were killed in addition to several getting injured. In this incident also, Sharifullah had conducted aggressive reconnaissance of the target and the route, which was later adopted by the attackers. In another significant confession he identified two of the four suspects currently in Russian custody for carrying out the firing attack at Crocus City Hall, on 22-Mar-2024 near Moscow, that killed more than 130-persons, and injured hundreds more. According to Sharifullah, he recalled providing them AK-style weapons training video for the attack.
The Afghan government of Taliban is soft-peddling about the identification and arrest of Sharifullah or its acceptance by claiming that they have got two Tajiks by the name of Sharifullah already locked up in Afghanistan who are purportedly members of ISIS and they are not aware of any other Sharifullah belonging to ISKP and being arrested and being handed over to USA.
According to the information gathered through the media, the Central Intelligence Agency had shared the lead about Sharifullah’s movement with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) regarding Sharifullah’s movements along Pak-Afghan borders. The ISI tracked Sharifullah successfully and effected his arrest. As per some sources Sharifullah @ Jafar and five others were apprehended by the ISI from Turbet area in Balochistan. One Younas kaka was wanted in Crocus City Hall bombing who was handed over to Russia. Two others were wanted by Iran and therefore handed over to them. It was a very successful intelligence operation which earned Pakistan a generous thanks from the US President Trump.
The incident of capture of Sharifullah and his subsequent transfer to USA has broken the ice between the Pakistan and America and is poised to reset Counter-Terrorism cooperation between the two. This would have fair effect on other faculties of relationships as well. Pakistan’s persistent point of view about Afghanistan transforming as a hub of international terrorism is also vindicated with smoking gun evidence. The capture and confession of Sharifullah clearly reveals the extent of Afghanistan’s failure in honouring the Doha Agreement. With stacks of UN reports about presence of more than two dozen international terrorist groups nurturing in Afghanistan and their cross-border terrorism, the incident had laid bare the dangers posed not only to Pakistan, but to the USA and its present, as well as future allies.
At a time when USA is shifting its policy from the conventional warfare to economic development, and has jump-started the America First policies, it is evident that cooperation in counter terrorism is going to become the main bridge between American and Russian cooperation. The importance of witness in Crocus City Hall terrorism case, offers tremendous opportunities to broaden the scope of cooperation. Let us not forget, that for quite some time, exchange of prisoners or hostages, has been the key for new relationships. The intelligence would become a very important bartering tool. It may be recalled that USA had before the occurrence of Crocus City Hall incident in Russia, informally alerted Russia about the threat from ISIS-K. Russia had also implicated Ukraine in this matter, but with Ukraine now rapidly being reduced to a pawn in this Great Game, the bartering of enhanced intelligence pivoted around Sharifullah, could give more traction to the ongoing peace initiatives between Russia and America. The intelligence value of the Sharifullah will also be available to USA to exploit in repairing its relations with Canada. USA, with availability of such a witness at hand, would be able to complete its Intelligence matrix about several facets of terrorism emanating from Afghanistan, and leads for several more networks and cases will be corelated.
Considering the recent upscaling of terrorism against Pakistan, an improved counter-terrorism cooperation and increased exchange of intelligence between USA and Pakistan could prove critical in Pakistan’s fight against terrorism. On 04-Mar-2025, during Ramadan in the evening time, two SB-VBIED vehicles were rammed into the perimeter wall of the Bannu Cantonment during a highly coordinated attack by terrorists, in an effort to breach the security of the camp area. The explosions also destroyed adjoining mosque and residential quarters in the area. After breaching the perimeter, several terrorists tried to enter inside the cantonment area to carry out indiscriminate attacks and take hostages of the residents and families. Quick reaction Forces (QRF) retaliated while rescue operations were immediately initiated. After engaging the terrorists, necessary operational sanitization operations were launched by the security forces, that were completed by morning, when atleast 4 x Suicide Bombers, and 12-terrorists were neutralized, whereas, 05-security personnel embraced martyrdom. Rescue services reported 13-civilians, with 6 x children dead, while 32-were injured. Although, the attack was claimed by Jaish-i-Fursan Muhammad, an affiliate of outlawed Hafiz Gul Bahadur group, headquartered in Afghanistan, the Pakistan’s security forces have no doubt that there was a physical involvement of the Afghan nationals while the whole operation had been planned and executed by the directors sitting cross-border in Afghanistan. Possibility of this attack being conducted by the confederate and mercenary sub-groups of TTP in support of ISIS-K, in retaliation to the handing over of Sharifullah of ISIS-K to USA by Pakistan, cannot be ruled out.
As this develops, news spreads in the world media and would reverberate in the power corridors of the world, the likelihood of escalating terrorist attacks by the groups operating from Afghanistan cannot be ruled out.
This incident has further emphasised and drawn the attention not only of the USA, but of the world towards the fact that there is a proliferation of Left Behind Weapons, left in Afghanistan, abandoned Weapons in Syria by the disbanded Syrian Armed Forces, and the smuggling and sales of western supplied arms from Ukraine, that have been reported reaching the terrorist groups or Non-State Actors in Africa, Middle East, Europe, Central Asia, and South East Asia. With these modern weapons in such an abundance being available to terrorist groups, a significant rise in the quality and quantity of terrorism in the world is inevitable, and would require the intelligence services to collaborate and cooperate in putting this menace down. It is becoming clear that addressing this rising threat will form an integral part of future peace plans for the world.
Although Israel has conducted several bombing operations against suspected weapons storages and warehouses in Lebanon and Syria, yet it is believed that the number of militant outfits which had been operating in Syria, have managed to loot away quite a sizable number of weapons. All these weapons are apparently on the move towards arms-markets emerging in Afghanistan, which has more than 24-terroists groups in safe havens, such as Badakhshan. This is a wake-up call for China and Central Asian Republics, as the main epicentres of terrorism are visibly shifting towards Badakhshan.
The author is former Director General Intelligence Bureau, Pakistan
