Nine terrorists including mastermind of DI Khan attack nabbed: CTD

As many as nine terrorists, including the mastermind and seven facilitators, involved in the Dera Ismail Khan attack on the security forces earlier this month have been detained by the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of police on Thursday.

The six of the militants belong to Afghanistan while the mastermind of the deadly terrorist attack hails from DI Khan’s Daraban area, revealed the CTD documents obtained by Geo News.

The CTD said Hasan aka Shakir, the terrorist who carried out the suicide attack, belonged to Afghanistan. He had released a video too before the attack.

Geo News has obtained documents including the national identity card and domicile of the other suicide bomber killed in the attack, Sifat Ullah Marwat. The documents establish he was a resident of Afghanistan. Whereas, the father of the suicide bomber Sifat Ullah has also confirmed his son's connection with Afghanistan.

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, they revealed.

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 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 attempt to enter the post was effectively thwarted, which forced the terrorists to ram an explosive-laden vehicle into the post, followed by a suicide bombing attack. The resulting blasts led to the collapse of the building, causing multiple casualties; twenty-three brave soldiers embraced shahadat, while all six terrorists were effectively engaged and sent to hell,” the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) stated in a statement. 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 2 am. 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 the 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.

“Today’s [Tuesday’s] terrorist attack is yet another reminder of the terrorist threat to peace and stability in the region. We must act resolutely with all our collective might to defeat this menace. On its part, Pakistan remains steadfast in its commitment to combat terrorism. The attack, whose responsibility has been claimed by Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan, a terrorist group affiliated with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), resulted in multiple causalities, including shahadat of twenty-three security personnel,” said the Foreign Office.