Security forces in Afghanistan have arrested the leader of the Islamic State alongside twenty other members of the organization. The operation that led to the arrest was conducted by the country’s National Directorate of Security (NDS).
The Pakistan-born head of the terrorist organization identified as Abdullah Orakzai — also known as Aslam Farooqi was arrested in Kandahar province. Intelligence reports indicate that Farooqi took over after Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the Khorasan Province’s (ISKO) leader was killed. The group’s slain leader was also Pakistani-born and identified as Abu ‘Umayr Abdul Haseeb Bajori and was killed in 2018 after which Farooqi took control of the group.
The arrest of Farooqi alongside several top lieutenants of the ISKP terror organization come as the group appears to have revamped and taking advantage of the temporary disarray caused by the current global health crisis as well as continued fighting between the US troops and the Taliban. ISKP claimed responsibility for the attack on a Sikh religious complex in the capital Kabul in early April, killing 25 people.
