Afghan special forces arrest local Daesh leader

Afghan Special Forces have arrested the leader of the Daesh terrorist group’s affiliate in Afghanistan.

News ID: 449913

Date: 05 April 2020 - 21:32

RNA - Special Forces of the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) arrested Abdullah Orakzai, alias Aslam Farooqi, who led Daesh’s so-called Khorasan Province affiliate, the ISIL-KP, during an operation on Friday, NDS said in a statement on Saturday.

At least two other top commanders of the terrorist group were also arrested in the special operation, along with 17 other militants, according to the NDS.

Orakzai was said to have been behind terror-related activities both in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He took over as the chief of the outfit after the death of Abu Saeed Bajawori in 2018.

Further information was not offered by NDS, and it was not clear where in Afghanistan the operation had taken place.

The ISIL-KP claimed responsibility for a terrorist attack on a Hindu-Sikh religious complex in the capital, Kabul, last month, killing 25 people.

In recent years, Daesh has claimed responsibility for a string of horrific bombing and other attacks across Afghanistan.

The Takfiri group emerged in Afghanistan in 2015 as it gradually faced defeat and lost its strongholds in Syria and Iraq.

The terrorist group, which has based itself mainly in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar Province, has an estimated 2,000 to 2,500 militants.

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