Afghan govt to be provided evidence of air base attack

Ibrahim, Siraj, Rabnawaz, Adnan and Muhammad Ishaq have been identified as five of the 14 terrorists who were killed following an attack on a PAF base in Peshawar early on Friday. He said further investigation is underway and it will be shared with Afghan authorities on completion.

In an interview, he said there is evidence that terrorists received phone calls from Afghanistan.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Monday condemned last week’s deadly attack on the Badaber Air Force base near Peshawar and said Afghanistan will never allow its land to be used against Pakistan.

The meeting comes after security agencies began gathering evidence on the terrorist attack at PAF’s Badhaber residential complex on September 18. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) registered an FIR under terrorism charges on the complaint of the Badhaber camp commandant.

At least 88 suspects including Afghan refugees were arrested from Ashab Baba area in a joint search operation of security forces and police.

Announcing a Rs1 million for anyone providing information about the terrorists, political agent Shahab Ali Shah confirmed that four attackers belonged to Khyber agency. “The evidence will help the Afghan security officials to take action against the planners of the terror attack”, the adviser said. Air Marshal Rashid Kamal also visited PAF Camp Badhaber where he met the PAF personnel.

It is the second major attacked for which Afghanistan was blamed after deadly Peshawar school attack in December, resulting in killing of 150 people, mostly students.

Maj Gen Asim Bajwa, director general of Pakistani military’s media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), had said on Friday that the attack was planned in and controlled from Afghanistan. Other servicemen were killed during clashes with the attackers.