A man charged with helping to plan an attack that killed 13 U.S. military members reportedly sat in Pakistan’s custody for almost a year before President Donald Trump demanded justice.
ISIS-K terrorist Mohammad Sharifullah had been detained by April 2024 before Pakistan used him for an “unsuccessful intelligence operation,” Indian news outlet The Print reported Friday. The Trump administration charged him Sunday with helping to orchestrate three major attacks.
Pakistan located and jailed Sharifullah using information from former President Joe Biden’s CIA, according to the report, which cited U.S. and Indian government officials familiar with the matter. Pakistan’s intelligence agency then tried to use Sharifullah to find other ISIS operatives, though no details were provided on the effort.
United States Arrests ISIS-K Attack Planner for Role in Killing of U.S. Military Service Members at Abbey Gate, Afghanistan
: https://t.co/gA9tJ3mxAi pic.twitter.com/jp6Q9MtGqe
— National Security Division, U.S. Dept of Justice (@DOJNatSec) March 5, 2025
Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) said Sharifullah admitted to his role in the suicide bombing at a Kabul, Afghanistan airport in August 2021 that occurred while Biden’s military withdrew from the country. Sharifullah allegedly conducted surveillance beforehand to tell his accomplices when and where to send the bomber. The blast killed 13 U.S. military members and around 170 Afghans.
Sharifullah also told federal agents he helped prepare fellow Islamic terrorists for attacks on a Canadian embassy in 2016 and in Moscow, Russia in March 2024, according to the DOJ.
Despite his alleged role in as many as 335 deaths, the U.S. did not arrest Sharifullah until Trump made it “a priority … to find the people responsible” for the Kabul bombing, CIA Director John Ratcliffe said Wednesday. Ratcliffe confirmed that Sharifullah arrived in the U.S. Tuesday night to face charges.
It’s unclear precisely when the U.S. identified Sharifullah as responsible for the attack. The CIA and DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The White House previously told the DCNF that Trump “prioritized finding this individual on day one.”
Sharifullah faces the possibility of the death penalty if convicted of his terrorism charges, USA Today reported. His detention hearing is set for Monday at a Virginia court.
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