PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police on Tuesday identified a constable of the Peshawar police, Mohammad Wali, as the facilitator of the 2023 suicide attack on the Malik Saad Shaheed police lines mosque, which martyred 86 police personnel.

On Jan 30, 2023, a suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body during Zuhar prayer in the police lines mosque.

Addressing a news conference at the Counter-Terrorism Department headquarters, KP police chief Akhtar Hayat Khan said that the suspected constable was detained from the Jamil Chowk area of Ring Road on Nov 11 along with two suicide jackets.

He said that during the interrogation, police investigators found out that the accused, Mohammad Wali, a resident of Dalazak Road area of the provincial capital, was a cop in the city police.

Police chief says detainee was paid Rs200,000 for task

Mr Hayat said that the detainee was the “missing link” of the police lines mosque attack, which investigators were striving to trace for the last 22 months.

“There were unanswered questions about the identity of the person who facilitated suicide bomber Qari, an Afghan national, in reaching police lines,” he said.

Mr Hayat said the accused cop, who recruited in the Peshawar police on December 31, 2029, came into contact with Junaid, an Afghanistan-based handler of Jamiatul Ahrar (JuA), a breakaway faction of outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, via Facebook in February 2021.

He added that the same year, the accused travelled to Afghanistan via Chaman border crossing and met his handler, Junaid, and visited JuA training centres in Nangarhar and Kunar provinces.

The police chief said that the accused also met JuA commander Salahuddin and Mukkaram Khurrsani and formally joined the militant outfit by taking oath of fealty at the hands of Mullah Yousaf.

He added that the accused was paid Rs20,000 for that trip to Afghanistan.

“The Afghan forces had detained the accused while he was returning to Pakistan but he was released following the intervention of Junaid,” he said.

Mr Hayat said that the accused was posted to the Malik Saad Shaheed police lines, the headquarters of city police in January 2023 when Junaid contacted him with a plan to “some big attack” to avenge the killing of JuA chief Umar Khalid Khorasani in Afghanistan.

He said that the accused shared maps and photos of police lines with his handler via social media platform Telegram.

The police chief said that on January 20, 2023, the accused was asked to pick up a man from a Charsian mosque in Bara tehsil of Khyber tribal district and that man was Qari, an Afghan citizen, who later carried out a suicide attack inside the police lines mosque.

He said that the attacker initially did recee of the police lines and after his failing in his first attempt to enter the premises on January 27, the accused again picked up the accused from the same mosque on January 30 and provided him police uniform and helmet and dropped him at the Pir Zakori bridge at the eastern entrance of the city.

Mr Hayat said it was the accused who informed his handler about the police lines bombing.

He said the accused was paid Rs200,000 for facilitating the attack and death of his comrades in arms.

“The money was transferred through hundi-hawala and was received at Chowk Yadgar,” he said, adding that the accused later got himself posted out of police headquarters to Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit service.

The police chief said that the accused was a ghostly militant operative and was responsible for several attacks in the provincial capital, Charsadda and two attacks in Lahore.

He said that he supplied improvised explosive devices to at least three attacks in the provincial capital in 2023 and 2024, while he was also responsible for the targeted killing of a priest in Jamil Chowk area in 2021.

Mr Hayat also said the accused again carried out hand grenade attacks in Gillani Market in Dalazak Road area in Dec 2023 and supplied pistols that were used in the killing of an Ahmadi man and martyrdom of two police personnel in two separate incidents.

He added that the accused also delivered hand grenades, IEDs and suicide jackets on several occasions, while a suicide bomber was arrested by the CTD in June 2024.

The police chief said that it was a huge challenge for police investigators to get to the bottom of the police lines attack.

He said that in March 17, 2023, the police arrested Imtiaz alias Torshpa, a backup suicide bomber for the police line attack who informed investigators that the attack was the handiwork of JuA.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2024