The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) on Thursday arrested nine terrorists including the mastermind and seven facilitators involved in the deadly attack on the compound of security forces in Dera Ismail Khan that left at least 23 soldiers martyred earlier this month.
According to the CTD documents available with Geo News, the mastermind involved in the terrorist attack belongs to Daraban area of DI Khan while six terrorists involved in the attack hail from Afghanistan.
According to the documents, the terrorist who carried out the suicide attack, Hasan alias Shakir, is from Afghanistan and made a video prior to the attack. Sifat Ullah Marwat, the other suicide bomber who was killed in the attack, also had a national identity card and a residence, which further proved that the attacker is from the neighboring nation.
Geo News has obtained documents about the suicide bomber Sifat Ullah, while the father of the suicide bomber Sifat Ullah has also confirmed his son’s connection with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the Taliban-led Afghan government).
According to the documents, five terrorists of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Gandapur group were also embroiled in this attack. US-made weapons and ammunition were recovered as well from the terrorists.
Daraban suicide attack
At least 23 soldiers embraced martyrdom and many others were injured when six suicide bombers rammed an explosive-laden truck into a military base in the troubled Daraban area of Dera Ismail Khan district early Tuesday, according to security officials.
“In the early hours of December 12, 2023, a group of six terrorists attacked a security forces post in the Daraban area of Dera Ismail Khan.The subsequent explosions caused the building to collapse, resulting in multiple casualties,” according to a statement from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR). “All six terrorists were effectively engaged and sent to hell; twenty-three courageous soldiers embraced shahadat.” A little-known militant group, Tehreek-e-Jihad-e-Pakistan (TJP), claimed responsibility for one of the deadliest attacks on Pakistani security forces.
Their spokesman, Mullah Mohammad Qasim, sent a statement to the media, saying a group of their suicide bombers, led by Maulvi Hasan Gandapur, stormed the military compound at 2am. Gandapur reportedly rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into the building’s outer walls that caused the main building where the soldiers were residing to collapse.
Subsequently, Foreign Secretary Muhammad Syrus Sajjad Qazi summoned the Chargé d’Affaires of Afghan interim government to deliver Pakistan’s strong demarche in the context of the deadly terrorist attack in Daraban, and demanded that Kabul apprehend and hand over the perpetrators of the attack and the TTP leadership in Afghanistan to the Government of Pakistan.
