The attack on the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul on Wednesday evening was "orchestrated" by Pakistan, the Afghanistan government has said. The attack claimed the lives of 16 people, including seven students, three security personnel and two security guards.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani spoke with Pakistan Army Chief Raheel Shariff and demanded "serious and practical measures against the perpetrators of the attack," reported the news outlet, Pajhwok. The National Security Council of the Afghan government said in a statement that the attack was orchestrated from across the Durand Line, the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
No terrorist organisation has claimed responsibility for the attack yet, but Taliban, which Pakistan has been accused of harbouring, is known to carry out such attacks in the country. Taliban militants had abducted two professors of the university recently. Afghanistan has been fighting against the terrorist group for years now with the backing of the United States.
According to a statement released by Pakistan's Inter-Service Public Relations, Shariff promised Ghani that Pakistan would not allow its land to be used to launch attacks against Afghanistan.
"Afghan authorities have shared 3 mobile telephone numbers allegedly used during the University attack who allegedly were on contact with the attackers... Our evaluation of the evidence provided and outcome of Combing op so far, has shown that all Afghan SIMs used during the attack were from a network owned and operated by Afghan company whose spill over signal affects some areas along Pak-Afghan border," the release said.
The Pakistan government has condemned the attack on the university and, in a statement issued by the Foreign Office, said that the country condemns terrorism in all forms and manifestations.
Security forces killed the two attackers almost 10 hours after the siege began in Kabul with an explosion around 7:50 p.m. in the university campus on Wednesday. About 50 people, including 35 students and nine police officials, were wounded in the attack while over 750 students and staff members, who were trapped inside the university campus, were rescued.
