Security forces in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have arrested an Afghan man whom officials accuse of planning terrorist activities, according to a press conference held on Wednesday. Mahmood Jan, Advisor for Information for the Area Development Secretariat in the province, spoke alongside Additional Inspector General Syed Abbas Ahsan to announce the detention.
Jan said Pakistan has long argued that militants use Afghan territory to launch attacks against it. He said evidence of this has surfaced repeatedly and that Islamabad has put its case before the international community. He described the arrest as a major success for security forces and law enforcement agencies.
Route into Pakistan and arrest near Peshawar
Ahsan said the suspect entered the country through the Tirah Valley before he was caught at a location near Peshawar. He is alleged to have planned militant operations on Pakistani soil. Ahsan called the arrest an important breakthrough.
Interrogation, the additional IG said, helped investigators identify the suspect’s facilitators in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. It also shed light on his training and his alleged involvement in militant activity. Jan described the man as part of a chain that appeared to have no end, saying such people exploit darkness to slip across the border. In his words, Pakistan’s sons are always ready to confront them on their soil.
Former Afghan army service and madrasa activities
Ahsan identified the suspect as Hikmatullah, from Mangiara village in the Chamkani area of Afghanistan’s Paktia province. He said Hikmatullah had served in the Afghan National Army, where he completed three months of military training followed by three months of commando training.
After the Afghan Army was disbanded, the suspect allegedly began visiting several madrasas. There, Ahsan said, he used his military background to train individuals and build contacts that could support attacks in Pakistan. One institution named by Ahsan was the Khalid bin Waleed madrasa near Jalalabad in Afghanistan. He alleged that Hikmatullah trained a student named Akramah there as a suicide bomber.
Alleged ties to the Gul Bahadur group
Ahsan further claimed that the suspect had previously been linked to the Gul Bahadur group and had acted as a personal bodyguard to one of its commanders, Mansoor. He said Hikmatullah maintained wide-ranging connections with militant networks and their facilitators on both sides of the border.
The additional IG said investigators had gathered significant information about the people who supported the suspect’s activities in both countries, and that more details had emerged during questioning. He also said a video statement from the arrested man would be shown to the media. In that recording, the suspect had reportedly confessed to his activities and explained the purpose of his trip to Pakistan.
Jan had earlier said the government had repeatedly presented evidence of Afghan territory being used for attacks against Pakistan. He said the suspect was part of a wider network involved in efforts to carry out attacks inside the country. The story is still developing, and further details are expected.
