Pakistan hands over an Abbey Gate suspect

Background

On 26 August 2021, during the evacuation of Kabul, a suicide bomber from ISIS-Khorasan attacked crowds at Abbey Gate outside Hamid Karzai International Airport, killing 13 US service members and some 170 Afghans. The attack became a political symbol in the United States of the chaotic withdrawal.

What happened

In his address to a joint session of Congress on 4 March 2025, Trump announced that the man he described as responsible for the atrocity had been arrested and was being brought to the United States, and he especially thanked the government of Pakistan for helping to arrest him^1,2. The suspect, Mohammad Sharifullah, also known as Jafar, was detained near the Pakistan–Afghanistan border; reports said the CIA had provided intelligence on his location and that Pakistani forces made the arrest^2,3.

Sharifullah was flown to the United States and made his first appearance in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, charged with conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organisation resulting in death. Prosecutors alleged he had helped plan the Abbey Gate attack, including surveillance of the route used by the bomber; the FBI said he had also admitted involvement in other ISIS-K attacks⁴.

Why it mattered

Pakistani officials and commentators saw the arrest as breaking the ice with the new administration, which had earlier paid little attention to Pakistan^3,5. It showed that intelligence cooperation against ISIS-K - a common enemy - continued to function, and it gave Trump a concrete reason to praise Pakistan in public, which he had rarely done during his first term.

Legacy

Within months the relationship had warmed markedly, through the May 2025 India–Pakistan ceasefire, the June White House lunch for Field Marshal Asim Munir and the summer trade agreement.