The call came in January. CIA Director John Ratcliffe, just days into his tenure, reached out to Pakistan’s intelligence chief with a plea: help us bring those behind Kabul’s Abbey Gate bombing – an attack that killed 170 Afghan civilians and 13 American soldiers – to justice.
Advertisement
What followed was a sweeping seven-month operation that spanned intelligence networks across 21 nations, culminating in the arrest of Mohammad Sharifullah and 38 others. It was a victory that has thrust Pakistan back into the global spotlight as an integral player in the fight against Islamic State Khorasan, or Isis-K.
Led by Pakistan’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) – whose director general Lieutenant General Asim Malik met Ratcliffe on the sidelines of a security conference in Germany to hatch the plan – the operation dismantled a key Isis-K “external operations cell” responsible for some of the deadliest attacks in recent years, with its most dangerous operatives subsequently deported to countries including the United States, Russia, Turkey and Iran.
The arrest of Sharifullah, an Afghan national who confessed to orchestrating the Abbey Gate suicide bombing during the chaotic US withdrawal in August 2021, marked a diplomatic victory for Islamabad and Washington.
It prompted rare praise from US President Donald Trump, who extended thanks on March 4 to Pakistan’s government “for helping arrest this monster” during his first speech to Congress since retaking the presidency.
Advertisement