Bajaur suicide bomber identified as Afghan national

ISLAMABAD: The suicide bomber who carried out an attack on a security post in Bajaur district earlier this week was an Afghan national, Pakistani security officials said on Friday, calling it further evidence that Afghan soil is being used to stage militant attacks inside Pakistan.

The attacker, who struck the Malangi Post on February 16, was identified as Ahmad, also known as Qari Abdullah Abu Zar, a resident of Afghanistan’s Balkh province, according to security sources.

Officials described him as a member of a militant group and said he had previously been associated with Taliban special forces in Afghanistan.

At least 11 security personnel and two civilians were martyred in the bombing.

Pakistani officials said that they had obtained what they described as “irrefutable evidence” linking the attacker to Afghanistan, though they did not publicly share further details.

Islamabad has repeatedly accused the Afghan Taliban administration of failing to prevent militant groups from using Afghan territory to plan and launch attacks across the border.

The Afghan Taliban government has previously denied allowing its territory to be used against other countries.

Security sources also cited a series of recent attacks in Pakistan that they said involved Afghan nationals or had links to Afghanistan.

These included a February 6, 2026 suicide bombing in Islamabad’s Tarlai area, as well as attacks in November 2025 on Islamabad’s Judicial Complex and the Frontier Corps headquarters in Peshawar.

Officials further pointed to assaults in October and November last year on the police training centre in Dera Ismail Khan and a cadet college in Wana, saying Afghan nationals were involved.

They said a suspected suicide bomber arrested in South Waziristan in October 2025 was from Afghanistan’s Kandahar province.

Authorities also alleged that planning for a March 4, 2025 attack on Bannu Cantonment took place in Afghanistan, and that facilitators of the March 11, 2025 Jaffar Express attack were in contact with a militant figure allegedly hiding there.

A suspect arrested in September 2024 had also confessed to cross-border links, officials said.

Security analysts in Pakistan say militant groups continue to find safe havens across the border, complicating counterterrorism efforts.

Pakistani authorities claim that more than 70 per cent of militants involved in recent attacks are Afghan nationals, a figure that could not be independently verified.

Tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan have risen sharply in recent months over cross-border militancy, with Islamabad urging Kabul to take decisive action against armed groups operating from its territory.