U.S. President Donald Trump has thanked Pakistan for arresting an alleged mastermind behind the deadly 2021 Kabul airport attack, but in doing so, he missed the real story: Pakistan’s intelligence agency, ISI, has been actively fueling the very terror outfit it claims to have cracked down on.
Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), the terror group responsible for the devastating Kabul blast that killed 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. troops during the botched U.S. withdrawal, has deep roots in Pakistan. The Paki establishment has long used ISKP as a strategic weapon—arming and funding its operatives to target the Taliban while simultaneously using them to spread terror in India.
Just recently, India’s Gujarat ATS arrested an ISKP terrorist, Abdul Rehman, who was plotting an attack on the Ram Mandir. Investigations have revealed that Rehman was trained and funded by none other than Pakistan’s ISI. He joined ISKP nearly ten months ago, received training through online video calls, and participated in attack planning discussions from his shop in Milkipur. While India is actively dismantling ISKP’s network, Pakistan is merely staging arrests to appease Washington and ensure the flow of U.S. funds continues uninterrupted.
Trump’s announcement—made during his first address to Congress after returning to the White House—celebrated Pakistan for assisting in the arrest of “the top terrorist responsible” for the Kabul bombing. He declared that the terrorist was “on his way to face the swift sword of American justice,” while taking a jab at Joe Biden for the “disastrous and incompetent withdrawal” from Afghanistan.
The so-called “arrest” has been widely publicized, with reports identifying the suspect as Mohammad Sharifullah, also known as Jafar, an ISKP leader. But here’s the truth—Pakistan has not captured a mastermind; it has merely sacrificed a scapegoat. This is a well-documented Paki tactic: hand over one disposable terrorist while keeping the rest operational.
ISKP itself is nothing more than a Frankenstein’s monster created by Punjabi Paki establishment. Its leadership is stacked with former Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) members—many of whom defected after ISI’s crackdown on TTP intensified. The group’s founding emir, Hafiz Saeed Khan, along with other top commanders, were Pakistani nationals with deep ties to ISI-backed terror networks.