A person allegedly involved in planning the deadly August 2021 bombing at Kabul airport had been arrested with Pakistan’s assistance, United States President Donald Trump announced . The attack, known as the Abbey Gate bombing, took place while the US forces and their allies were evacuating Kabul after Tabilan’s takeover of the city.
After Thanking Islamabad | Trump To Ban Pakistanis From Entering US
Why In News
- A person allegedly involved in planning the deadly August 2021 bombing at Kabul airport had been arrested with Pakistan’s assistance, United States President Donald Trump announced on (March 4) night.
- Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on thanked Trump for “acknowledging and appreciating” Pakistan’s role in counter terrorism efforts after the country helped arrest the suspect, who has been identified as Sharifullah alias Jafar,
- The attack, known as the Abbey Gate bombing, took place while the US forces and their allies were evacuating Kabul after Tabilan’s takeover of the city.
Abbey Gate Bombing
- As the US authorities set an August 31, 2021, deadline to evacuate all American troops stationed in Afghanistan, Taliban took over Kabul on August 15, and Hamid Karzai International Airport became the only way out of the country.
- As a result, on August 26, thousands of people including Afghans gathered at the airport to be evacuated. At around 5:50 pm, a suicide bombing at the airport’s entry point, known as Abbey Gate, took place, killing nearly 200 people, including 13 American soldiers.
- It was later found that the bomber was Abdul Rahman al-Logari, a member of the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham-Khorasan Province (ISIS-K).
The Suspect
- Senior US officials told the Associated Press that Sharifullah was arrested late last month on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan by Pakistani officials.
- “During the interrogation, the official said the suspect confessed to his role in the attack… and also a March 2024 attack in Moscow that was carried out by the… ISIS-K… and several attacks inside Iran,” the report said.
- Officials also said that Sharifullah had joined the militant group in 2016, and was involved in more than 20 attacks across Afghanistan. Notably, Sharifullah was arrested in 2019 by the US-backed Afghan government at the time but escaped from prison as the Taliban took Kabul.
- In a press statement, the US Department of Justice said, “Sharifullah admitted to helping prepare for the Abbey Gate attack, including scouting a route near the airport for an attacker. Sharifullah specifically checked for law enforcement and American or Taliban checkpoints; he then communicated to other ISIS-K members that he believed the route was clear and that the attacker would not be detected.” Sharifullah also admitted to knowing al-Logari before the bombing.
- After the attack, Sharifullah remained on the run in the border areas of Balochistan until his arrest through a joint intelligence-sharing operation between Pakistan and the US.
Ban On Pakistani Travel
- US President Donald Trump is likely to issue a travel ban order that could deter people from Pakistan and Afghanistan from entering the United States by next week based on a government review of countries’ security and vetting risks, according to people familiar with the matter.
- The move is reminiscent of Trump’s ban on travellers from seven Muslim-majority countries during his first term, a contentious policy that was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018 before it was overturned by Joe Biden. That ban included the countries of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen.
- Other countries could also be on the travel ban list, three sources told Reuters, but they did not know which ones. It could affect tens and thousands of Afghans who were earlier cleared of resettlement in the US as refugees or on Special Immigrant Visas due to the risk of persecution by the Taliban for working for the US.
- Trump issued an executive order on January 20 requiring intensified security vetting of any foreigners seeking admission to the US to detect national security threats. That order directed several cabinet members to submit by March 12 a list of countries from which travel should be partly or fully suspended because their “vetting and screening information is so deficient.”
- Afghanistan will be included in the recommended list of countries for a complete travel ban, said the three sources and one other. Pakistan would also be recommended for inclusion, said the three sources.
- Pakistan is currently grappling with violent Islamist militants. Earlier this week, six security personnel were killed in twin suicide bombings at a military base in northwestern Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The attack was carried out inside an army cantonment in the Bannu area. Pakistan and Afghanistan forces also regularly exchange fire, often sparked by disagreements over construction near the Durand line, a 2,400-kilometre (1,500-mile) frontier drawn by the British in 1896 and disputed by Kabul.
