Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani on Thursday said that the attack on an American university in Kabul was “organised and orchestrated” from Pakistan, and demanded Pakistani authorities to take “serious measures against terrorists”.

A meeting of Afghanistan’s National Security Council was convened on Thursday, during which Ghani reportedly Called Chief Of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif and asked him “for serious and practical measures against the terrorists who organised the attack”, read a statement issued by the office of Afghan president.

During the conversation, the army chief strongly condemned the attack and expressed sympathies with the bereaved families, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR). The COAS said that Pakistani soil would not be allowed to be used for any type of terrorism in Afghanistan.

Afghan authorities shared three mobile numbers with Pakistan, saying these numbers were allegedly in contact with the people in Pakistan during the university attack.

Based on these three Afghan cell numbers, the Pakistan Army carried out a combing operation in suspected area closer to the Pak-Afghan border to verify presence of miscreants.

The ISPR said, “Our evaluation of the provided evidence and the outcome of combing operation so far have shown that all Afghan SIMs, used during the attack, were from a network owned and operated by an Afghan company whose spill-over signals affect some areas along the Pak-Afghan border.”

The military’s media wing said that the outcome of the operation so far had been shared with Afghan authorities, while further technical evaluation of the cell numbers was being carried out.

The COAS assured the Afghan president of all-out cooperation on the availability of further information.

It may be mentioned here that 16 people were killed after militants stormed the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul, in a nearly 10-hour raid that prompted anguished pleas for help from trapped students.

Explosions and gunfire rocked the campus after the attack began Wednesday evening, just weeks after two university professors – an American and an Australian – were kidnapped at gunpoint near the school.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the assault, but it occurred as the Taliban ramp up their nationwide summer offensive against the Western-backed government.

“Sixteen people, including eight students, were killed and 53 others were wounded,” Health Ministry spokesman Waheed Majroh told AFP. “Some of the wounded are in critical condition.”

The Interior Ministry said the fatalities included policemen, a university guard and a guard from the neighbouring vocational school for the visually impaired.