ISLAMABAD: Noor Wali Mehsud, the chief of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), planned the Nov 11 suicide blast outside Islamabad’s Judicial Complex, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Tuesday.

The attack killed 12 people and injured 35 others, with the government saying days later that it had arrested four TTP terrorists in connection with the bombing.

Addressing a press conference, Mr Tarar detailed correspondence between these four facilitators and TTP commanders in Afghanistan.

Displaying their pictures, he identified them as the suicide bomber’s handler Sajidullah alias Sheena, Kamran Khan, Muhammad Zali and Shah Munir.

Tarar details correspondence between facilitators and Afghanistan-based TTP leaders; says ‘no doubt’ attack was orchestrated from across the border

The minister said the TTP chief “planned this attack through his commander Daadullah”, whom Sajidullah met in 2023, 2024 and in August 2025. He added that Daadullah and Sajidullah “remained in touch through an app”.

He identified Daadullah as a resident of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bajaur, adding that he was currently hiding in Afghanistan.

He also played a video statement of the man he identified as Sajidullah, who the minister said arranged the suicide jacket and brought the bomber, Usman Shinwari, to the site of the attack.

“He was planning this incident in collaboration with Noor Wali Mehsud’s commander Daadullah. Their target was to carry out such an act in either Rawalpindi or Islamabad,” Mr Tarar said, highlighting that the country evaded a “major loss”.

In August 2025, Sajidullah and Zali visited Afghanistan together.

Once back in Pakistan, Sajidullah met Shinwari, the suicide bomber, who Mr Tarar said was a resident of Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province.

Detailing the correspondence between Sajidullah and Shinwari, the information minister said they scouted multiple locations but “failed to reach their target” due to security.

“There is no doubt in the fact that all of this was orchestrated from Afghanistan. Daadullah is present in Afghanistan, [and] the main perpetrator, named Sajidullah, was also trained in Afghanistan,” the minister said, adding that the bomber was also a resident of Afghanistan.

After playing Sajidullah’s video statement, Mr Tarar asserted, “This is very clear-cut evidence that the TTA (Tehreek-i-Taliban Afghanistan) and the TTP jointly did this.”

He said the four men arrested had “some role in some capacity in the suicide bombing”.

In the video statement, the man identified as Sajidullah said he went to Afghanistan in 2016, met Abu Hamza and returned to Pakistan after receiving training for a month.

He said he met Abu Hamza during his 2023 visit to Kunar, and then days later, went to Daadullah’s hideout, who “brainwashed and forced me to take an oath of allegiance”.

He said, “Six months ago, Daadullah contacted us and told us to come to Afghanistan and told me to bring my friend along as well.”

They met Daadullah at his residence, where the TTP commander tasked them with transporting the suicide jacket provided by him to the bomber, according to Sajidullah’s account.

A few days later, Sajidullah continued, he was told an Afghan national, Usman, would contact him.

On Nov 11, Sajidullah added, he picked up the jacket from Munir, and both of them, along with Zali, “made [Usman] wear the jacket”.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2025