How the Kabul airport blast mastermind was captured and what it means for US-Pakistan relations

Telegraph

09-03-2025

The suspected mastermind of the deadly bombing of Kabul airport during the chaotic US withdrawal was captured after painstaking planning and coordination between America and Pakistan, The Telegraph can reveal.
Mohammad Sharifullah, also known as 'Jafar', has now been extradited to the US and faces charges in Virginia of providing material support to the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), the designated terrorist group responsible for the attack which killed 13 US military personnel and at least 170 Afghan civilians.
Sharifullah was arrested in a counter-terrorism operation in Pakistan's Balochistan province near the Afghanistan border, a Pakistan ministry of defence official told The Telegraph.
'The Pakistan army, acting independently, captured Sharifullah along with three other high-profile ISIS-K operatives in a carefully planned raid,' the official said.
The US intelligence services had been tracking Sharifullah but required Pakistan's assistance to secure his arrest. 'When the Americans located him, they engaged with us. Once we confirmed his identity, we made it clear that this would be a Pakistan-led operation,' he said.
'We sent our elite unit of special forces to storm his hideout near the Afghanistan border and nabbed him in a swift raid,' he said.
On March 2, Sharifullah was handed over to US officials and flown to Washington DC, via Morocco on a department of justice aircraft, he said.
His arrest marks a significant moment in counter-terrorism cooperation between Washington and Islamabad, as the two nations work to repair strained relations following America's withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The American intelligence agencies had been hunting the mastermind since the Kabul Airport attack. As soon as John Ratcliffe, the CIA director, took charge, he established contact with Pakistan's ISI chief, Lt Gen Asim Malik. Later they met again during the Munich Security Conference last month.
During the close door meetings, the US urged Pakistan to play a key role in neutralising the growing ISIS-K threat in the region with global security consequences.
Donald Trump, who blames Joe Biden for the chaotic pullout from Afghanistan, announced Sharifullah's arrest in his address to Congress on Tuesday.
'He is right now on his way here to face the swift sword of American justice,' Mr Trump said.
We will NEVER forget the 13 heroes who lost their lives at Abbey Gate.
God bless the leadership of @Kash_Patel, @PamBondi, @TulsiGabbard, & @JohnRatcliffe in bringing this scum home to face justice. 🇺🇸 https://t.co/CkUioFgD5M pic.twitter.com/P5SfaR8xGz
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) March 5, 2025
On Monday, Sharifullah appeared in court wearing a blue jail jumpsuit. He stood around 5ft tall, wore a surgical face mask, and spoke through an interpreter in the packed courtroom. A judge ordered him to remain in custody until a formal detention hearing scheduled for Monday.
US authorities allege that Sharifullah helped ISIS-K operatives scout routes around Kabul's Abbey Gate, ensuring the suicide bomber could reach the target undetected. He also allegedly provided intelligence to the terrorist group to facilitate the attack.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said Sharifullah 'orchestrated' the bombing, vowing that under Mr Trump's leadership, the US would ensure that terrorists 'have no safe haven'.
Kash Patel, the FBI Director, heralded his capture and extradition saying: 'The FBI will never forget the loss of these American heroes, we will continue to hunt down those who viciously murdered our warriors, we will find all responsible and bring them to justice.'
According to the DOJ, during FBI interrogations, Sharifullah admitted to knowing Abdul Rahman al-Logari, the ISIS-K militant who carried out the suicide bombing.
He also confessed to involvement in other attacks, including a 2016 bombing near the Canadian embassy in Kabul and last year's massacre at Crocus City Hall near Moscow, which killed 130 people. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Sharifullah's militant career began with the dreaded Haqqani Network (HQN), a group closely linked to al-Qaeda.
In 2015, he defected to ISIS-K and formed Kabul Katiba, an elite urban warfare unit, which has a direct link to the group's core leadership.
Former Afghan intelligence officials told The Telegraph that he operated alongside senior jihadist figures of Islamic State (IS) including Sanaullah Ghafari, the current emir of ISIS-K.
He introduced the small-cell structure to improve operational secrecy, enabling independent attacks with minimal risk of exposure when the ISIS-K lost territorial control in eastern Afghanistan.
He was first arrested in 2019 by Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS), which identified him as one of ISIS-K's most dangerous operatives. He was held in Bagram prison until Aug 15, 2021, when the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan led to mass prison breaks, allowing him to escape and re-join ISIS-K.
Sharifullah's capture comes at a time of heightened tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Clashes along the Torkham-Jalalabad border crossing have escalated, displacing dozens of families and forcing a shutdown since Feb 21.
Relations between Islamabad and the Taliban remain strained, with Pakistan accusing Afghanistan of harbouring militants who launch cross-border attacks — an allegation the Taliban denies.
Pakistan has been pushing for renewed US counter-terrorism support, including pressuring the Taliban to return abandoned American military equipment that Islamabad claims is being used by insurgents in cross-border attacks.
In recent weeks, Mr Trump has repeatedly said he wanted to recover the weaponry left behind.
'We're talking here about a concrete case of cooperation on a sensitive issue, in this case intelligence-sharing on a shared threat. This is a rare success story for a relationship that's lacked an anchor since the US withdrawal from Afghanistan,' said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Centre in Washington DC.
'While this isn't necessarily the opening salvo of a new counter-terrorism alliance, it does signal that the new administration — despite featuring a large number of harsh Pakistan critics, including the president himself — thinks enough of Pakistan as a partner that it's willing to reach out on a matter as fraught and complex as counter-terrorism,' Mr Kugelman said.
On March 4, Mike Waltz, the US national security advisor, called Mohammad Ishaq Dar, Pakistan's foreign minister, thanking his country for its efforts in countering terrorism.
Dar reaffirmed Pakistan's commitment to 'continue its cooperation with the US in the field of counter-terrorism'.
On Tuesday, 18 people, including children, were killed and dozens more wounded after a group of gunmen and suicide bombers launched a coordinated attack on a Pakistani army base at Bannu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
On Thursday, General Asim Munir, Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff, said that terrorist groups continued to operate from Afghan soil against Pakistan. The use of foreign weapons and equipment in recent terrorist attacks was clear evidence that Afghanistan remained a haven for such elements, General Munir said.
The UN Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team warned in February that Afghanistan remains the primary hub for ISIS-K operations. The group's activities in Pakistan have also surged, with the Islamabad-based Centre for Research and Security Studies reporting more than 1,600 fatalities from militants in 2024 — the deadliest year in a decade.