Abdullah Orakzai had links with LeT, Haqqani network
KABUL – Afghanistan’s intelligence has arrested an ISI-linked Pakistani Islamic State (IS) militant who was the mastermind behind the attack on a Kabul gurdwara last month that left 27 persons, including an Indian citizen, dead.
Abdullah Orakzai, alias Aslam Farooqi, a key leader of IS’ Khorasan branch, was arrested with his 19 associates during a “complex operation” by the National Directorate of Security (NDS) in the country’s southern province of Kandahar on Saturday.
A native of Pakistan’s restive northwestern Orakzai agency, he was “enjoying close relations” with Pakistan-based terror groups such as the Haqqani network and the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), the NDS said in a statement.
Farooqi was appointed IS’ shadow governor in Afghanistan after the killing of Abu Saeed Bajawri. He was operating as the commander of ISIS’ military wing in Peshawar and was deployed in Abdul Khel valley of Achin district of Nangarhar, it said.
