The Chief of United States Central Command (CENTCOM) General Michael Kurilla has declared Pakistan a “phenomenal partner” in global counter-terrorism efforts, highlighting the country's fight against militancy.

 

“Through a phenomenal partnership, Pakistan has gone after Daesh-Khorasan, killing dozens of them... through a relationship we have with them and providing intelligence, they have captured at least five ISIS Khorasan high-value individuals.” General Kurilla said during a House Armed Services Committee hearing in Washington DC, on Tuesday.

 

Since the Taliban took control of Kabul in August 2021, Pakistan has witnessed a sharp uptick in violent attacks, particularly in the Western border regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan.

 

During the congressional hearing, General Kurilla was answering questions about the security situation along Afghanistan’s contiguous border with Pakistan.

 

“... right now what we saw is the Taliban is going after Daesh-Khorasan...they hate each other, [Daesh-Khorasan] have been pushed toward the tribal areas along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border,” he said.

 

“They [Pakistan] have extradited back Jaffar, who was one of the key individuals behind the Abbey Gate bombing,” he added, referring to Daesh operative Mohammad Sharifullah, an Afghan national who was arrested by Pakistan earlier this year.

 

On August 26, 2021, a suicide bombing at the Abbey Gate of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul during the final days of the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan killed 13 American soldiers and at least 170 Afghans. Daesh Khorasan had claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Sharifullah has confessed to scouting out the route to the airport, where the suicide bomber later detonated his device among packed crowds trying to flee the country after the Taliban seized control of Kabul, the Justice Department said.

 

Furthermore, the CENTCOM chief said he received a call from the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Asim Munir after Sharifullah’s arrest. General Kurilla quoted Asim Munir as saying, “I’ve caught him, I’m willing to extradite him back to the United States, please tell the Secretary of Defence and the President".

 

“We’re seeing Pakistan, with limited intelligence that we provided them, go after them using their means to do that, and we’re seeing an effect on Daesh Khorasan,” he added.

 

General Kurilla said that since the start of 2024, there have been 1,000 terrorist attacks in the western area of Pakistan, noting that the country was “in an active counter-terrorism fight right now”.

 

The CENTCOM chief concluded by emphasising that America needs to maintain ties with both Islamabad and New Delhi. "I do not believe it is a binary switch that we can’t have one with Pakistan if we have a relationship with India. We should look at the merits of the relationship for the positives that it has,” he said.