Mastermind of Islamabad imambargah attack arrested in KP raids: Naqvi

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said on Saturday that four facilitators of the suicide attack on an imambargah in Islamabad, including the “main mastermind”, had been arrested during raids in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He made the remarks while speaking to the media in Islamabad. In his media talk, the interior minister said that operations were underway all of last night to trace those behind the attack.

Making special mention of the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police for their joint efforts, he said, “All those people linked to this, and the mastermind, at around 3am, all of them were apprehended.”

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.

He said that an assistant sub-inspector of KP police was martyred during the raids, while others were injured.

“But the main mastermind is linked to Daesh and is in our custody,” he said, referring to the banned so-called Islamic State.

The minister further said that the planning and training for the attack was 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.

The minister further said that he had two requests for the public.

“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,” he said.

“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 said.

The interior minister further said that the names of Daesh and Taliban were coming up but “someone was funding them” and giving them targets.

“They would get $500 but now they’re getting $1,500. Someone’s increasing their budget,” he said.

“I say again with clarity that all of their funding comes from India. India is giving them all the targets; they are planning each and every thing behind the scenes. These organisations are at the front, while India is at the back,” he said.

He said that while the world may stay silent for now, it would agree with Pakistan’s stance in the future. Naqvi noted that “nothing happens for free” and that the attack cost money to orchestrate, adding that since May, terrorists’ budgets had increased by three times. Staff Report