Security sources told Afghanistan International on Monday that one of the suicide attackers involved in the assault on the Wana military college in South Waziristan, Pakistan, was an Afghan national identified as Janullah Ayubi.
He was also known by the alias Zahid, and originated from Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province.
A photograph obtained by Afghanistan International shows a memorial ceremony held for him, in which he is described as a “martyred hero.”
The sources said Janullah was a resident of Kochiyano village in Mohmand Dara district of Nangarhar province. According to the information, several local Taliban officials attended his memorial service.
The attack took place on November 9, when four assailants stormed the military facility, killing three Pakistani soldiers. Pakistani authorities said two of the attackers were Afghans.
During the assault, the attackers rammed a vehicle packed with explosives into the main gate of the college and then engaged in a gun battle with security forces. The Pakistani government later said all the attackers were killed.
Pakistan claimed the attack was organised from inside Afghanistan. In a statement, Pakistan’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said that the attack on the Wana military college was planned and directed from Afghanistan. It added that the operation was designed in Afghanistan by a foreign national named Zahid, and Noor Wali Mehsud ordered its execution.
The statement added that all the attackers who carried out the assault on the college were Afghan nationals. The equipment used in the attack was also supplied from Afghanistan and included American-made weapons, it added.
On November 10, the Taliban’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement strongly condemning the attacks in Islamabad and at the Wana military college in South Waziristan. The group has repeatedly denied that militants carry out attacks against Pakistan from Afghan territory.
More recently, Asim Munir, Pakistan’s chief of army staff, claimed that “70 per cent” of fighters from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) are Afghans. He told the Taliban administration that it must choose between Pakistan and the TTP.
