Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office on Monday summoned Afghan Charge d’Affaires Syed Abdul Nasir Yousafi to convey Pakistan’s concern regarding the use of Afghan soil by terrorist elements in the Bacha Khan University attack.

A statement issued by the Foreign Office said the diplomat was told that investigations revealed the perpetrators of the deadly attack on the university were operating from Afghan territory and used the Afghan telecommunication network to plan and execute this attack. The statement further said that relevant evidence had also been shared with the Afghan diplomat. It was conveyed to the Afghan government that they must take action against the perpetrators of the terrorist attack and extend cooperation to Pakistani authorities in order to bring them to justice, it added.

At least 21 people were killed when unidentified gunmen entered the university in Charsadda last week and opened fire on students and faculty members.

The mastermind of the APS Peshawar attack, Umar Mansoor of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Geedar Group, claimed the attack through a post on his Facebook page, adding that four attackers were sent to the university.

Authorities say the Bacha Khan University attack was planned and orchestrated by Pakistani Taliban militants based in neighbouring Afghanistan, and called on the Afghan government to co-operate in its investigation.

Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Lt Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa had on Saturday said, “We have arrested four facilitators, who helped the attackers enter Pakistan and then took them to Mardan.”. The main facilitator (code named Target A), who received and made arrangements for clearance of attackers at Torkham border check-post, had not yet been arrested and intelligence-based operations were continue to nab him, he had said.

The DG ISPR said the attack on the university was planned and controlled from Afghanistan as the phone call of Omer Mansoor, who later claimed responsibility, was made from Afghanistan.

Omer Mansoor and his deputy Qari Zakir were making calls to attackers from Afghanistan and on the day of attack around 10 calls were made from a location from across the border, he added.

He said Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif had conveyed this intelligence-based information to the Afghan president as well. Lt Gen Bajwa had also played the audio recording of a phone call made by Omer Mansoor to a Peshawar-based journalist while claiming responsibility of the attack. The phone number from which Omer Mansoor called the journalist was identified on CLI (Caller Line Identification) as 0093774021675.

Producing the facilitators before media, he had said one of them was Adil, a mason by profession who recently did some masonry work at Bacha Khan University and later drafted the map of the premises for the attackers. He kept the attackers at his home in Mardan and briefed them about the map of the university, the DG ISPR added.

He said two other facilitators, including Riaz and Noorullah, young people from Mardan, hired a rickshaw and took the attackers from Mardan to Bacha Khan University in Charsadda District.

The fourth facilitator, he said, was son of Adil, who knew the plan and helped his father in the whole process.

He said the main facilitator (Target A) took help of his wife and niece in purchasing ammunition for attackers from Darra Adam Khel. The two women went to Darra Adam Khel and brought the ammunition while concealing in their burqas (veil), he added.

The ‘Target A’, his wife and niece were now on the run and would soon be arrested as the hunt for them was going on, he said.

The DG ISPR had said that at no point had the Afghan government been blamed for the attack. “We only said that the attacked was planned and handled from Afghan soil.”

To another question about border management with Afghanistan, he said the issue was under consideration and a lot of measures had already been taken. “Humanly it is not possible to seal the 2700-kilometer long border, but we are working to stop border crossing by terrorists.”

Both countries blame each other for harbouring Taliban fighters active on both sides of their border, fanning distrust between Kabul and Islamabad, and complicating a peace process in Afghanistan.