Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said on Saturday that the mastermind of the suicide blast at a mosque in Islamabad has been arrested, along with four facilitators
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said on Saturday that the mastermind of the suicide blast at a mosque in Islamabad has been arrested, along with four facilitators. Naqvi noted that the arrest took place during raids in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Naqvi shared details with the media on the investigation into the tragic attack that killed 31 earlier this week, Dawn reported.
The Pakistani interior minister maintained that operations are still underway to trace everyone involved in the attack. It is pertinent to note that the Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for the attack on Saturday. He also noted that the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) and the KP police are also involved in the joint investigation. “All those people linked to this, and the mastermind, at around 3 am, all of them were apprehended,” he said.
He lauded all “agencies”, saying that this incident was a “test case”. “After the blast, raids were carried out in Nowshera and Peshawar, in which four facilitators were caught. And their mastermind, who is an Afghan, was also caught,” he said. During the presser, Naqvi mentioned that an assistant sub-inspector of the KP police was killed during the raids, while others were injured.
Naqvi shares details about the mastermind
While speaking to the reporters, Naqvi revealed that the main mastermind of the attack was linked to Daesh and is currently in custody. The minister further said that the planning and training for the attack were done by “Daesh Afghanistan” and carried out in the neighbouring country.
“We have people who are telling us details about how he (the attacker) went there and how he was trained,” he said. He again lauded law enforcement agencies on the achievement. “We have been saying for a while that whether it be Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Afghan Taliban, Daesh or other kharji terrorist organisations — they are all working together. At this time, 21 terrorist bodies’ setups … name any terrorist body, it is operating from Afghanistan,” he said.
Afghanistan is yet to respond to the allegations. The Pakistani minister went on to call the current situation a ‘state of war’ “We are in a state of war; be it in Balochistan, KP or elsewhere. The intelligence from the community matters the most. When people get to know about an unknown person living in their community, report it to the police — when this system is activated, [terror incidents] will decrease,” he said.
“Secondly, I received a message last night from someone asking where the security agencies were and why this incident happened. I can tell you that if one blast happens, 99 others are being foiled. I spoke with the agencies and told them that we should share this with the media. It may spread panic, but I said that we should share with the media which incidents were foiled,” he added.
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