IS-K Terrorist Mohammad Sharifullah Also Staged Moscow Attack
US President Donald Trump & Kabul attack 2021 (Image credit X.com)
Sharifullah Plotted Multiple Suicide Bombings: Affidavit
By Raisina Correspondent
New Delhi, March 5: US President Donald Trump praised Pakistan for extraditing IS-K terrorist Mohammad Sharifullah. The terrorist is alleged to have masterminded several suicide bombings, including the Kabul Airport in 2021.
“The affidavit on Mohammad Sharifullah, the IS-K terrorist detained by Pakistan and reportedly now being extradited to the US, indicates that he plotted the Kabul Abbey Gate attack but was also involved in the Moscow concert attack. He was a big fish,” said Michael Kugelman, a strategic affairs analyst. Trump disclosed the extradition in his State of the Union address to the US Congress.
The affidavit details involvement of the IS-K terrorist in several of the suicide bombings. Sharifullah will be presented to the Virginia district court where an FBI investigator has submitted exhaustive affidavit against the IS-K terrorist.
Seth Parker is the FBI investigator who has tracked the involvement of Sharifullah in plotting the suicide bombings. “Prior to employment with the FBI, I was an Infantry Officer in the U.S. Army and led a rifle platoon in Afghanistan. My knowledge of the facts and circumstances contained within this affidavit is based upon my personal investigation as well as reports made to me by other law enforcement agents and governmental officials,” said Parker in the affidavit in the Virginia court.
The affidavit stated that “on March 2, 2025, the defendant, Mohammad Sharifullah, was interviewed by FBI Special Agents on or about March 2, 2025”.
The affidavit further gave an account of the Abbey Gate attack on Hamid Karzai International Airport on August 26, 2021. “American and other Coalition military forces were conducting an evacuation operation at HKIA as part of a larger operation to conclude U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan. Abbey Gate was the main entry control point for the operation,” read the affidavit.
Thousands of civilians were at or near Abbey Gate on August 26 for evacuation processing. “At approximately 5:36 p.m. local time, a lone suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at Abbey Gate. This attack killed thirteen United States military service members. Approximately 160 civilians also died in the explosion,” added the affidavit.
“After conducting an investigation of the attack, the Department of Defense (“DOD”) concluded the suicide bomber was an ISIS-K member named Abdul Rahman al-Logari. DOD also concluded al-Logari used a body-worn improvised explosive device (“IED”) to conduct the attack.”
Sharifullah was in prison in Afghanistan from 2019 until two weeks before the HKIA attack. “Upon Sharifullah’s release, an ISIS-K member contacted Sharifullah to arrange for his assistance in an upcoming attack. ISIS-K members provided Sharifullah with a motorcycle, funds for a cell phone and a SIM card, and instructions to open an account on a particular social media platform to communicate with them during the attack operation,” added the affidavit.
It further stated that “after making these preparations for the attack, Sharifullah was tasked with scouting a route near HKIA for an attacker. Sharifullah conducted surveillance on a route, specifically checking for law enforcement and American or Taliban.”
The FBI found that the IS-K terrorist was also involved in the Moscow attack. “The attack at Moscow Nightclub on March 22, 2024 was staged by a group of gunmen affiliated with ISIS-K attacked Crocus City Hall, a popular concert venue complex near Moscow, Russia. The attackers shot numerous victims with firearms including AK-style rifles and set fire to the building,” added the affidavit.
The attack killed approximately 130 people and injured numerous others. “After the attack, an ISIS spokesperson released a statement praising the attack and calling for additional attacks by ‘lone wolves’ targeting Christians and Jewish people, especially in the United States, Europe, and Israel during the holy month of Ramadan,” added the affidavit.
Sharifullah received an order from a known ISIS-K senior leader to provide instructions on how to properly use AK-style rifles and other weapons to would-be attackers in Moscow, said the affidavit. “Sharifullah shared video instructions with several individuals. Following the attack, Russian authorities arrested four gunmen in connection with the attack. Sharifullah recognized two of those individuals as the same people to whom he provided the firearms training video,” added the affidavit.
The IS-K terrorist being extradited was first found to have been involved in the 2016 attack on the Kabul embassy. “The attack on Embassy Guards in Kabul, Afghanistan on June 20, 2016 was carried out by a suicide bomber acting on behalf of ISIS-K and intending to target United States Embassy personnel in Kabul,” added the affidavit.
Over ten embassy guards and wounded other soldiers tasked with guarding the Canadian embassy, in addition to killing multiple civilians in Kabul, Afghanistan.
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