Norwegian prosecutors confirmed Tuesday that Arfan Qadeer Bhatti has been charged with complicity in the June 25, 2022, terrorist attack in central Oslo when a gunman opened fire in the city’s nightclub district, killing two and injuring 21. According to state prosecutor Sturla Henriksbø, authorities believe the attack was carried out with Bhatti’s planning and support.
Bhatti is also charged with attempting to enter into an agreement for further terrorist acts in Norway and Pakistan. Prosecutors allege he communicated with someone he believed to be an ISIS leader, offering to recruit an individual to carry out attacks with a suicide vest or firearm. Suggested targets included the family of NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, the Norwegian embassy in Islamabad, and Norwegian journalists in Pakistan.
Bhatti, who has pleaded not guilty, is accused of aiding and abetting aggravated terrorism by helping acquire weapons and attempting to involve ISIS by encouraging them to claim responsibility for the 2022 shooting in an area popular with the city’s LGBT community mere hours before Oslo’s annual gay pride parade was set to begin. “In the prosecution’s view, Bhatti was the main man behind the attack,” Henriksbø said.
Bhatti’s attorney, John Christian Elden, said the charges are unexpected and that Bhatti denies all wrongdoing. He maintains Bhatti had no relevant contacts prior to the Oslo attack that would make him complicit.
The 2022 attack, initially believed to be the work of a lone gunman—a Norwegian-Iranian man named Zaniar Matapour—was classified as a terrorist act and potential hate crime. Matapour, of Kurdish origin, came to Norway as a 12-year-old refugee with his family in 1991. He has been charged with an aggravated terrorist act, a crime that carries a maximum sentence of 30 years. Norway’s Police Security Service (PST) had been aware of Matapour since 2015, citing concerns about his radicalization and alleged involvement in an extreme Islamist contact network in Norway. Authorities now allege Bhatti collaborated with Matapour, offering planning and support behind the scenes.
Investigators say Bhatti had prior contact with Matapour before the attack. In April 2022, the two were stopped by police in Oslo while allegedly following anti-Islamism activist Lars Thorsen. Authorities also believe Bhatti is behind a Telegram profile used to coordinate the mass shooting and possibly communicate with terrorist networks. He was extradited from Pakistan to Norway in May of 2024 and has been in custody since.
