Kabul Sikh Temple attack: Two close aides of mastermind Aslam Farooqui arrested
Kabul: In yet another breakthrough in the gurudwara attack in Kabul city of Afghanistan, security forces in Afghanistan have arrested two aides of Islamic State Khorasan Province chief Aslam Farooqui.
Aslam is believed to be the mastermind behind the attack on the Sikh gurudwara.
Sources said the arrested people were identified as Bangladeshi citizen Tanweer and Pakistani national Ali Mohammad.
"Tanweer was a Finance expert & Ali Mohammad was a logistics and fundraising expert," the source added.
The so-called emir of Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) Mawlawi Abdullah aka Aslam Farooqui was arrested earlier this month.
He has confessed his strong relationship with Pak spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
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He was arrested by security forces in Afghanistan on charges of orchestrating the attack on the Sikh gurudwara on Mar 25, an incident that was condemned worldwide.
Farooqi is a native of Orakzai agency that is located in Pakistan, media reports said.
Farooq was operating as the commander of Daesh’s military wing in Pakistan’s Peshawar city and was deployed in Abdul Khel valley of Achin district of the eastern province of Nangarhar, read a statement issued by National Directorate of Security (NDS) of Afghanistan, as reported by Tolo News.
Farooqi was "enjoying close relations" with the other terrorist groups such as "the Haqqani network, Lashkar-e-Taiba,” said the statement.
According to reports, he had joined LeT in 2004.
The attack last month in the Kabul city of Afghanistan left 25 people killed.
Meanwhile, experts have said the attack was executed by ISKP to make its presence felt and to grab international headlines.
"In a nutshell, the attack by ISKP revealed Pakistan’s nefarious design of destabilising Afghanistan and deny India an active role there. However, ISPK will die its natural death if Pakistan can be isolated by the international community for patronising terrorist forces," wrote Nalin Kumar Mohapatra , who teaches at the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, in his article on The Sunday Guardian.
"The timing of the attack is quite important as it took place just after the peace deal reached between the United States and the Taliban in February. Second, was this attack a warning signal (from the ISKP and its chief patron, Pakistan’s ISI) to India about not playing an active role in the political process of Afghanistan? One may recall here that the international community, including the US consistently reposed faith in India to bring normalcy to this war-ravaged state," he said.
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"Thirdly, it has been reported that Pakistan’s ISI has roped in the ISKP to dislodge peace and stability in Afghanistan in a bid to get the upper hand there. This is because the US dumped Pakistan as its proxy in Afghanistan since the Cold War days, and went ahead to sign a peace deal with the Taliban directly in February 2020," he said.
"Some of these developments need to be examined carefully to get a clear picture about the ISKP’s motive behind attacking the gurudwara," he wrote.
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