Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said on Saturday that four facilitators of the suicide attack on an imambargah in Islamabad, including the main mastermind have been arrested during intelligence-based raids in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Speaking to the media in Islamabad, he said operations continued throughout the night in Peshawar and Nowshera to trace those behind the attack.
Naqvi said the arrests were made through joint efforts of the Counter-Terrorism Department and KP police. He confirmed that the mastermind, an Afghan national linked to Islamic State, is now in custody.
During the raids, an assistant sub-inspector of KP police was martyred while several other personnel were injured. The minister paid tribute to all security agencies, calling the case a “test” that was met with swift and coordinated action.
According to the interior minister, investigations have established that the planning, training and indoctrination of the attacker were carried out in Afghanistan.
He said authorities have obtained detailed information about how the attacker travelled there and received training. Naqvi added that terrorist outfits including TTP, Daesh, and other groups were operating together from Afghan soil posing a growing regional threat.
Urging public cooperation, the minister said Pakistan was in a state of war against terrorism, whether in Balochistan, KP or elsewhere.
He stressed that community intelligence was critical and appealed to citizens to report suspicious individuals in their neighborhoods. Naqvi also said many attacks were being foiled quietly and that agencies would share more information with the media to counter panic and misinformation.
The interior minister alleged that terrorist networks were being funded from abroad, claiming their budgets had increased significantly in recent months.
He said Pakistan would raise the issue at international forums and brief diplomatic missions accordingly. Referring to recent violence in Balochistan, Naqvi said no attacker had been spared and dismissed claims that militants controlled any territory.
The Ministry of Interior later confirmed the arrests, saying further intelligence-based operations were under way to dismantle remaining networks linked to the Islamabad attack.
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