The Afghan national arrested following the Jamaat ul Ahrar attack on the Pakistan Rangers (Sindh) camp in Karachi’s Gulistan-i-Jauhar has confirmed he was trained in Afghanistan, providing security forces with the first on-record account of how the attack was planned and executed.
Security sources said the arrested terrorist identified himself as Usman Ali and revealed that he had come to Pakistan from Jalalabad in Afghanistan. He identified the three other attackers as Abdul Hadi, Janaan and Umar Farooq.
Ali admitted he belonged to JuA, whose commander in Afghanistan he identified as Ahrar Moulvi. He said he and his companions were trained in Afghanistan, and that a man identified as Umar Qari had provided him a jacket and trained the group, while they prepared the explosive material themselves.
Ali revealed that Janaan had thrown a bomb at the Rangers camp. He and his companions had arrived in Karachi seven days before the attack and were housed in an under-construction building. Abdul Hadi, a resident of Bajaur, had made all arrangements in advance. Hadi had sourced the weapons used in the attack from Waziristan.
According to the UN Security Council’s website, JuA is based in Nangarhar, Afghanistan, with most of its commanders and operatives hailing from Mohmand Agency, dispersed after Pakistan’s military operation Zarb-i-Azb, with remnants continuing to launch terrorist attacks inside Pakistan.
The confession directly links the Karachi attack to Afghan soil and Afghan-based militant command structures, reinforcing Pakistan’s longstanding position that the Afghan Taliban has failed to dismantle terrorist sanctuaries on its territory.
