ISKP chief held for plotting attack

nNEWDELHI: Afghan security forces, in a special operation on Saturday, arrested the so-called emir of the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) Mawlawi Abdullah aka Aslam Farooqui on charges of orchestrating the March 25 attack on a Kabul gurdwara that left 27 worshippers dead. The arrest was confirmed by the Afghan intelligence agency National Directorate of Security, in a statement.

Pakistani national Mawlawi Abdullah, who was earlier associated with the proscribed Lashkar-e-taiba (LET) and then the Tehreek-e-taliban terror group, replaced Mawlawi Zia-ul-haq aka Abu Omar Khorasani as ISKP chief in April 2019. Abdullah belongs to the Mamozai tribe and is from the Orakzai agency area on the Pakistan-afghanistan border.

The NDS statement added that Abdullah has links with the Pakistan-based LET as well as the Haqqani network.

According to counter-terror operatives in Kabul and Delhi, Abdullah, acting on the instructions of the Haqqani Network and

LET, used Kasaragod, Kerala, resident Muhsin Trikaripur, along with three other Urdu-punjabi speaking attackers to massacre 27 Sikhs at the gurdwara in Shor Bazaar, Kabul. An Indian citizen, Tihan Singh, died n the attack.

Mushin was killed in the attack and his mother in Kerala was informed of his death.

The US, its allies and India condemned the attack on the gurdwara . Observers said the main target of the ISKP was likely the Indian Embassy in Kabul because both Pakistan and Taliban want India out of the evolving Afghan political equation in the context of a peace deal with the US. Similar threats have been posed to Indian consulates in Jalalabad, Herat and Kandahar with India forced to withdraw its staff for safety purposes.

Four other Pakistani nationals were also arrested by the Afghan agency. Abdullah is now going to be questioned by NDS to find out who ordered the attack and what role Pakistan played in the terror strike. He is also expected to come up with the names of the other terrorists in his group, which operates in Nangarhar, Nuristan, Kunar, Kabul and Kandahar provinces.