Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said on Saturday that four facilitators of the suicide attack on an imambargah in Islamabad, including the “main mastermind”, had been arrested during raids in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
He made the remarks while speaking to the media in Islamabad. In his media talk, the interior minister said that operations were underway throughout last night to trace those behind the attack.
Making special mention of the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) and the KP police for their joint efforts, he said, “All those people linked to this, and the mastermind, at around 3am, all of them were apprehended.”
He lauded all “agencies”, saying that this incident was a “test case”.
“After the blast, raids were carried out in Nowshera and Peshawar, in which four facilitators were caught. And their mastermind, who is an Afghan, was also caught,” he said.
He said that an assistant sub-inspector of KP police was martyred during the raids, while others were injured.
“But the main mastermind is linked to Daesh and is in our custody,” he said, referring to the banned so-called Islamic State.
The minister further said that the planning and training for the attack was done by “Daesh Afghanistan” and carried out in the neighbouring country.
“We have people who are telling us details about how he (the attacker) went there and how he was trained,” he said. He again lauded law enforcement agencies on the achievement.
“We have been saying for a while that whether it be Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Afghan Taliban, Daesh or other kharji terrorist organisations — they are all working together. At this time, 21 terrorist bodies’ setups … name any terrorist body, it is operating from Afghanistan,” he said.
The minister further said that he had two requests for the public.
“We are in a state of war; be it in Balochistan, KP or elsewhere. The intelligence [from] the community matters the most. When people get to know about an unknown person living in their community, report it to the police — when this system is activated, [terror incidents] will decrease,” he said.
“Secondly, I received a message last night from someone asking where the security agencies were and why this incident happened. I can tell you that if one blast happens, 99 others are being foiled,” he said.
“I spoke with the agencies and told them that we should share this with the media. It may spread panic but I said that we should share with the media which incidents were foiled,” he said.
The interior minister further said that the names of Daesh and Taliban were coming up but “someone was funding them” and giving them targets.
“They would get $500 but now they’re getting $1,500. Someone’s increasing their budget,” he said.
“I say again with clarity that all of their funding comes from India. India is giving them all the targets; they are planning each and every thing behind the scenes. These organisations are at the front, while India is at the back,” he said.
He said that while the world may stay silent for now, it would agree with Pakistan’s stance in the future. Naqvi noted that “nothing happens for free” and that the attack cost money to orchestrate, adding that since May, terrorists’ budgets had increased by three times.
“We know about this and it is our duty to take this case to all international platforms,” the interior minister said. He added that he would brief the deputy prime minister on this in the coming days, so that foreign missions could update other countries about India’s involvement.
“They (India) are now doing it so openly because they know that they cannot beat us in a war,” Naqvi added. “If they have adopted this tactic, then let them. But we will stop this; even if they increase their budget tenfold, it will have no impact,” he asserted.
Naqvi further stated that the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) — which was behind a spate of attacks in Balochistan last weekend — created “high-production value” content that was carried by Indian media.
“The world has declared BLA a terrorist organisation, but nobody will go there (India) and ask why they are showing the BLA’s content,” Naqvi said.
“They create content, carry out incidents and run it on their media. It is a complete system they’ve created,” he said. He added that Indian media was trying to portray the BLA as having captured swathes of land in Pakistan but stated that “not one inch [of land] is under their control”.
Talking about the attacks in Balochistan, Naqvi said that no attacker was spared.
“They (India) are upset about that. But going forward, we will have a briefing on Balochistan and you will get the details,” he said.
“We will continue fighting this war, but the world needs to realise that this is becoming a regional threat,” he warned.
“We are doing what we can for our country, but these terrorist bodies are collaborating and jointly operating,” Naqvi added.
“The world needs to observe the damage and if this violence goes elsewhere in the world, then it is on other countries to decide on what to do,” he said.
Responding to questions from reporters, Naqvi noted that Pakistan had given a befitting response to Indian aggression in May last year, saying, “I think we are responding to them well. They will get a diplomatic answer.”
He stated that the attacker came from Afghanistan, with the operation taking place “after an important member of Daesh came here”.
Asked about the rank of the Daesh operative, Naqvi said further information would be provided in due course.
“We have caught multiple accounts on Twitter being used by terrorists and they are not being shut down,” Naqvi said in response to another question about the use of social media by terrorists.
“The government has written to them … but they are not blocked here, so we have taken this up very seriously,” he said.
He added, “If they do not do it, we may have to adopt another strategy.”
Questioned about security arrangements in Islamabad, Naqvi said that he had a detailed meeting with the Islamabad police today.
“We discussed entry points in detail; we have 93 entry points,” the minister replied. “The red zone has separate entry points, and then we discussed the M-tag. Within the coming days, the chief commissioner or Islamabad inspector general will brief you.”
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Interior also said on the social media platform X and said, “ Based on technical and human intelligence, coordinated raids were conducted in Peshawar and Nowshera districts of KP province, leading to the arrest of four facilitators, including the Afghan ISIS mastermind behind the attack.”
“Evidence confirms that planning, training, and indoctrination were carried out in Afghanistan by ISIS. The nexus of terrorism under Afghan Taliban patronage remains a serious threat to regional peace,” it said.
“During the conduct of these operations, an official of Law Enforcement Agencies embraced martyrdom and four sustained injuries. Our forces remain resolute; further intelligence-based operations are underway,” it said.
Raids in KP
Earlier in the day, security sources had also stated the same regarding the arrests of those involved. According to sources, a police officer was martyred, and three other security personnel were injured during the raids. Among those arrested is the alleged Afghan mastermind, affiliated with the banned Islamic State.
The raids, based on technical and human intelligence, were conducted in connection with the ongoing investigation to arrest those involved in the Islamabad imambargah suicide bombing, according to the police sources.
The raid in Nowshera was conducted in the Hakeemabad area of the district, according to police officials.
An official of the Nowshera police said that during a late-night operation, following leads on possible facilitators of the Islamabad suicide bombing, an exchange of fire took place between law enforcement agencies and the suspected militants.
“Yes, a raid was conducted in the district, and an exchange of fire took place. An assistant sub-inspector was martyred and a constable sustained injuries in the crossfire,” the police official confirmed.
The official, who requested anonymity, added that the raid was conducted as part of an ongoing probe against those involved in the Islamabad suicide bombing and that “it was not Nowshera police alone that took part in the operation”.
He, however, refused to share further details.
Friday’s attack came less than three months after a suicide blast outside a district and sessions court building in Islamabad’s G-11 area on November 11, 2025. Twelve people were killed and more than 30 were injured in the blast.
Yesterday’s attack was the deadliest in the capital since September 2008, when 60 people were killed in a suicide truck bomb blast that destroyed part of the five-star Marriott hotel.
Additional input from Umer Farooq
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