Pakistan asks US to help break Afghan Indian ‘terror nexus’

National Security Advisor says India’s RAW and Afghanistan’s NDS are patronising terrorists groups to attack soft targets in Pakistan Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Islamic State have already claimed responsibility for the attack

Mentioning that the terrorists who attacked the Quetta Police Training College were constantly in contact with their leadership and handlers in Afghanistan, Pakistan National Security Advisor General (r) Nasser Khan Janjua on Wednesday said to United States ambassador David Hale that India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS) are “patronising terrorists groups to attack soft targets” in the country.

Janjua said the nexus between terrorist groups operating under the supervision of NDS and RAW needed to be broken and the US should provide assistance for the same, according to a statement issued by the NSA. The meeting also discussed counter-terrorism operations and cross-border attacks.

Janjua also said peace in Afghanistan would only be possible if there was peace in Pakistan. The American ambassador was also briefed on Pakistan’s efforts to improve the current security situation in the country through implementation of the National Action Plan.

Hale, on the occasion, condemned the attack in Quetta and offered his regrets. He also offered American support for the same. Heavily-armed militants wearing suicide vests stormed a police academy in Quetta, killing at least 61 people and wounding at least 117, in the deadliest attack on a security installation in the country’s history. Three gunmen burst into the sprawling academy, targeting sleeping quarters home to some 700 recruits, and sent terrified young men aged between 15 and 25 fleeing.

“They just barged in and started firing point-blank. We started screaming and running around in the barracks,” one police cadet who survived told media.

General Sher Afgun, a senior military commander in Balochistan, confirmed the report, saying calls were intercepted between the attackers and their handlers, suggesting they were from the Al Alami wing of LeJ, a sectarian Sunni armed group.

“We came to know from the communication intercepts that there were three militants who were getting instructions from Afghanistan,” Afgun said.

“Two, three days ago we had intelligence reports of a possible attack in Quetta city, that is why security was beefed up in Quetta, but they struck at the police training college,” Sanaullah Zehri, chief minister of Baluchistan, told reporters.

Islamic State’s Amaq news agency also published the claim of responsibility, saying three IS fighters “used machine guns and grenades, then blew up their explosive vests in the crowd.” Islamic State has sought to make inroads over the past year, hoping to exploit Pakistan’s sectarian divisions. A photograph of the three alleged attackers released by IS showed one with a striking resemblance to the picture of a dead gunman taken by a policeman inside the college. The Hakeemullah Mehsud faction of the Pakistani Taliban also claimed responsibility for the attack in an emailed statement, but when members of the group were asked about the statement, they could not confirm it was authentic.

Earlier, the provincial government also announced the formation of an investigation team to probe the Quetta police college attack. Investigation Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Aitzaz Goraya will lead the investigation team. Quetta Police Deputy Inspector General Abdul Razzaq Cheema said, "The support of Punjab's forensic agency will also be sought. The team will visit the site of the carnage and speak to survivors of the tragedy to probe the incident," Cheema said.