ISLAMABAD: US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Ratcliffe confirmed this week Mohammad Sharifullah, blamed for a 2021 attack on US troops at Kabul airport, was arrested through intelligence sharing with Pakistan’s top military spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
The United States has charged Sharifullah with helping plan the attack at Kabul airport which killed at least 170 Afghans and 13 US soldiers as they sought to help Americans and Afghans flee in the chaotic aftermath of the Taliban takeover. The attack was claimed by Daesh-K, the Afghan branch of the Daesh group.
Speaking to Fox News, Ratcliffe said he had shared information with his Pakistani counterpart, Lt Gen Asim Malik, the DG ISI, about the location of Sharifullah, also known by the alias Jafar, along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
“My second day on the job I spoke with the head of Pakistani intelligence,” Ratcliffe told Fox News in an interview. “I shared with him that we had intelligence indicating that Jafar was located in the Afghan-Pakistan border region.”
He said he told Malik to make the capture of the Daesh commander “a high priority” if Pakistan wanted to work with President Donald Trump and “have good relations with our country.”
“So, we worked with Pakistani intelligence,” Ratcliffe added. “Jafar was apprehended in short order and is in US custody.”
The US Justice Department has charged Sharifullah with “providing and conspiring to provide material support and resources” to Daesh.
A view of the Albert V. Bryan US Courthouse of the US District Court Eastern District of Virginia, on March 5, 2025, in Alexandria, Virginia. A Daesh operative who helped plan the 2021 suicide bombing outside Kabul airport during the chaotic US military withdrawal has been arrested, President Donald Trump has said. The man named as Mohammad Sharifullah, also known as Jafar, and appeared in a federal court in Virginia on March 5, 2025. (AFP)
“He confessed. This was the planner of that bombing,” White House national security adviser Mike Waltz said in an interview with Fox News this week.
On Thursday, US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the US was thankful to the Pakistani government for its “partnership” in bringing Sharifullah to justice.
“And we have, regarding Pakistan and the nature of our relationship, we have a common interest, obviously, in fighting terrorism, and the arrest of this terrorist also illustrated that US-Pakistan cooperation on counterterrorism remains vitally important,” she said during a press briefing.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has also thanked Trump for recognizing Pakistan’s role in counterterrorism and confirmed the involvement of Pakistani security forces in the arrest of Sharifullah, an Afghan national.
Pakistan and the US have a history of counterterrorism cooperation, especially post-9/11, when Pakistan began handing over Taliban and Al-Qaeda members to US authorities.
However, Pakistan’s links with Washington have frayed in recent years, while arch-rival India has gained greater influence.
