ISKP's 'emir' Farooqui confesses having links with Pak-based terror networks

The so-called emir of Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) Mawlawi Abdullah aka Aslam Farooqui, who has been arrested by the Afghan forces on charges of orchestrating the attack on a gurdwara in Kabul last month, confessed to having links with Pakistan-based terror networks like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Haqqani, sources told ANI on Saturday.

"The Afghan Intel Agency National Directorate of Security (NDS) in a release confirmed IS Khorasan chief being arrested by Afghan Authorities. In the release, NDS said, Aslam Farooqui had links with Pakistan-based terror networks like Lashkar and Haqqani," the sources said.

The forces are expected to announce confession by Farooqui soon.

Four Pakistani nationals and ISIS members -- Masoudullah from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Khan Mohammad from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Salman from Karachi and Ali Mohammad from Islamabad have also been arrested, the sources said.

Farooqui was arrested on charges of orchestrating the Kabul gurdwara attack in which 27 people were killed.

Farooqui, a Pakistani national, who was earlier associated with the proscribed LeT group and then Tehreek-e-Taliban terror group, replaced Mawlawi Zia-ul-Haq aka Abu Omar Khorasani as ISKP chief in April 2019.

He belongs to the Mamozai tribe and from the Orakzai agency area on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

The gurdwara was attacked by four terrorists including a suicide bomber. At least 27 civilians were killed and eight others were wounded in the attack.

India and the US had condemned the barbaric attack.