The United States advised its citizens Wednesday to steer clear of a popular mosque in Pakistan’s capital due to potential terrorist threats.
The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad issued the threat alert following the emergence of a social media video earlier this week featuring a purported militant operative at the city’s Faisal Mosque, a major tourist destination.
The brief video showed the individual displaying a hand-drawn pamphlet featuring the flag of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which the United Nations has listed as a global terrorist organization. The video was shared on Monday via social media affiliated with TTP.
The U.S. diplomatic mission has prohibited employees from traveling to the mosque area until further notice. The advisory also urged American citizens to avoid the area, stating that “TTP militants have issued threats against Faisal Mosque in Islamabad.”
The terror threat alert was issued on the day Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Islamabad for a bilateral visit, amid heightened security measures.
TTP routinely stages suicide bombings and gun attacks against Pakistani security forces and other official targets, mainly in districts near and on the country’s border with Afghanistan. The violence has killed hundreds of people in recent years.
Islamabad has maintained that the group orchestrates terrorist attacks from sanctuaries in Afghanistan and has persistently called on the neighboring country’s Taliban leaders to rein in TTP militants.
The Taliban government in Kabul, not recognized by any country, denies the presence of TTP or any other foreign militant organizations on Afghan soil. It claims that no one is allowed to threaten neighboring countries and beyond from Afghanistan.
Critics have questioned the Taliban’s denial, pointing to the frequent high-profile attacks claimed or attributed to the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K), an Afghan affiliate of the transnational Islamic State terrorist network. The violence has killed hundreds of people, including senior Taliban leaders, religious figures and members of the Afghan Shiite community, since the Taliban reclaimed control of the country in 2021.
On Monday, U.N. counterterrorism officials warned during a Security Council meeting that IS-K is one of the “most dangerous” Islamic State branches.
“ISIL-Khorasan has continued to pose a significant threat in Afghanistan, the region and beyond,” Vladimir Voronkov, U.N. undersecretary-general for counterterrorism, told the meeting, using another acronym for IS-K.
The latest IS-K-claimed attack occurred on Tuesday when a suicide bomber detonated himself outside a bank in the northeastern Afghan city of Kunduz. Taliban officials said the blast killed five people and injured seven others. Multiple sources reported that the victims were primarily members of the Taliban security forces.
