Pakistan demands extradition of regional ISIS chief captured by Afghan intel; Kabul denies

Pakistan has insisting Afghanistan to handover the ISIS Khorasan leader who was recently captured by the Afghan intel agency. The Ambassador of Afghanistan to Pakistan was summoned to Islamabad by the Imran Khan government. In its request to extradite the ISIS terrorist from Afghanistan, Pakistan cited 'further investigations'.

Through its communication medium Aamaq news agency, the ISIS had confessed to plotting an attack on the Gurudwara in Kabul. The Pakistani national and chief of ISIS Khorasan province, Mawlawi Abdullah aka Farooqui, is previously known to be associated with Hafiz Saeed-led Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Haqqani network. The statement read: 

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"It was underscored to the Ambassador that since Aslam Farooqi was involved in anti-Pakistan activities in Afghanistan, he should be handed over to Pakistan for further investigations." However, on Friday Kabul specified that there was no extradition treaty with Pakistan and refused to hand over the terrorist, the local media reported. 

Ashraf Ghani's government asserted that Islam Farooqi will be dealt with based on Afghanistan's law. Further, taking a dig at Islamabad, Ashraf Ghani's government explicitly that Kabul 'does not discriminate'  between terrorists. The statement comes in reference to the well-known notion of 'good terrorist, bad terrorist' adopted by Pakistan to back terrorism on their soil.  "Afghanistan does not discriminate between terrorists, it takes equal legal actions against all and is committed to all anti-terrorism commitments," it added. According to the intel dossier, Farooqui took over as the chief of ISIS Khorasan Province in April 2019. On March 25, 27 people from the Sikh community were killed or severely injured by a terror attack in Kabul. 

In one of the deadliest attacks on the Sikh community in the war-stricken country, at least 25 people were killed and eight others were injured after an armed suicide bomber entered the prominent gurudwara in Afghanistan’s capital in Shor Bazar area at around 07:45 (local time) with 150 worshippers inside. The Islamic State group, which has previously also targetted the minority community in the country, had claimed the responsibility of the attack. 

ISIS in Pakistan 

A report published by an international media claimed that Hafiz Saeed Khan in 2014 was picked by ISIS former chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi himself to lead the ISIS Khorasan province. The Islamic State announced its so-called caliphate in the Khorasan region back in January 2015, months after establishing its base in Syria and Iraq. An Annual Information Security Summit (AISS) report had stated that 90% of those in Islamic State Khorasan Province are Pakistani nationals and armed with Pakistani weapons.

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