KARACHI: The recent arrest of a senior Daesh militant via joint collaboration by Washington and Islamabad is not a “historical shift” in bilateral ties between Washington and Islamabad, but a sign of continuing counterterrorism cooperation between the two states, Pakistani security analysts said on Thursday.
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday publicly thanked Pakistan for helping in the arrest of Mohammad Sharifullah, a Daesh operative implicated in a deadly 2021 Kabul airport bombing that killed at least 170 Afghans and 13 US troops.
Pakistan’s prime minister appreciated Trump’s support, confirming that Pakistani security forces arrested the militant in the border region with Afghanistan. On Wednesday, US National Security Adviser Michael Waltz called Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar to discuss counterterrorism cooperation between the two countries.
Ties between the US and Pakistan, once close allies following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in New York, have remained strained over the past few years. American officials have regarded with suspicion Pakistan’s role in the Afghan Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan, despite Islamabad’s denial it did not shelter and aid their fighters.
“The intelligence cooperation between both the United States and Pakistan never stopped,” Qamar Cheema, an expert on strategic and political affairs, told Arab News. “It was only the Americans who stopped looking at the region from a new lens.”
He said with the new Trump administration in place, Washington once again wanted to “work with Pakistan” on security and counterterrorism, adding that the US was once again interested in Afghanistan and transnational terror outfits.
“So, there is a mutual dependence obviously and this mutual dependence will continue,” Cheema noted.
Fizza Batool, an international relations expert, agreed. She cautioned against viewing Sharifullah’s arrest as a “renewed” partnership, describing it instead as a continuation of America’s Afghanistan-centered relationship with Pakistan.
“The latest development aligns with this pattern, representing a continuation of the strategic partnership rather than a fundamental shift in bilateral relations,” she told Arab News.
’BOOTS ON THE GROUND’
Dr. Asma Shakir Khawaja, a defense and strategic studies expert, noted Pakistan’s importance as a country with “boots on the ground” close to Afghanistan. She said the recent arrest highlighted how technological advancement alone cannot defeat a transborder menace such as “terrorism.”
“And this arrest indicates upon the fact that any technological advancement cannot undermine the importance of ‘boots on the ground,’” she said. “A combination of both will lead to success.”
A Washington-based analyst who spoke on the condition of anonymity, however, described Trump’s move to express gratitude for Pakistan as a “significant” development.
“Donald Trump does not give compliments easily, but when he feels it from the heart, he expresses his gratitude,” the analyst said. “Therefore, it will positively impact his relations with Pakistan.”
He said strategically Pakistan-US ties were likely to remain “unchanged” as Islamabad was a close ally of Beijing while Washington was allied with both Islamabad and its arch-rival New Delhi.
“In any case, engagement with Donald Trump has begun, whereas relations of Pakistan with the previous administration could not have developed,” the analyst said.
Daesh militant’s arrest sign of continuing Pakistan-US counterterror cooperation — analysts
https://arab.news/29cu5
Daesh militant’s arrest sign of continuing Pakistan-US counterterror cooperation — analysts
- US President Donald Trump this week publicly thanked Pakistan for aiding in senior Daesh operative’s arrest
- Security analysts say development shows counterterrorism cooperation between Pakistan and US never ceased to exist
No casualties as blast derails Jaffar Express train in Pakistan’s south
- Passengers were stranded and railway staffers were clearing the track after blast, official says
- In March 2025, separatist militants hijacked the same train with hundreds of passengers aboard
QUETTA: A blast hit Jaffar Express and derailed four carriages of the passenger train in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province on Monday, officials said, with no casualties reported.
The blast occurred at the Abad railway station when the Peshawar-bound train was on its way to Sindh’s Sukkur city from Quetta, according to Pakistan Railways’ Quetta Division controller Muhammad Kashif.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bomb attack, but passenger trains have often been targeted by Baloch separatist outfits in the restive Balochistan province that borders Sindh.
“Four bogies of the train were derailed due to the intensity of the explosion,” Kashif told Arab News. “No casualty was reported in the latest attack on passenger train.”
Another railway employee, who was aboard the train and requested anonymity, said the train was heading toward Sukkur from Jacobabad when they heard the powerful explosion, which derailed power van among four bogies.
“A small piece of the railway track has been destroyed,” he said, adding that passengers were now standing outside the train and railway staffers were busy clearing the track.
In March last year, fighters belonging to the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) separatist group had stormed Jaffar Express with hundreds of passengers on board and took them hostage. The military had rescued them after an hours-long operation that left 33 militants, 23 soldiers, three railway staff and five passengers dead.
The passenger train, which runs between Balochistan’s provincial capital of Quetta and Peshawar in the country’s northwest, had been targeted in at least four bomb attacks last year since the March hijacking, according to an Arab News tally.
Pakistan Railways says it has beefed up security arrangements for passenger trains in the province and increased the number of paramilitary troops on Jaffar Express since the hijacking in March, but militants have continued to target them in the restive region.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s southwestern province that borders Iran and Afghanistan, is the site of a decades-long insurgency waged by Baloch separatist groups who often attack security forces and foreigners, and kidnap government officials.
The separatists accuse the central government of stealing the region’s resources to fund development elsewhere in the country. The Pakistani government denies the allegations and says it is working for the uplift of local communities in Balochistan.
