Pakistan asks Afghanistan to extradite captured Daesh leader

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan demanded the custody of regional Daesh leader Aslam Farooqi, also known as Abdullah Orakzai, who was detained on April 5 in Afghanistan.
Islamabad also highlighted the significance of “coordinated actions against the menace of terrorism, including through established mechanisms,” said the foreign office in a statement on Thursday.
Afghanistan’s ambassador to Pakistan Atif Mashal was called to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad and was conveyed “Pakistan’s views with regard to the arrest of Daesh-K leader, Aslam Farooqi, by the Afghan authorities on 5 April 2020,” the FO added.
According to the official handout, Pakistan told the Afghan ambassador that “since Aslam Farooqi was involved in anti-Pakistan activities in Afghanistan, he should be handed-over to Pakistan for further investigations.”
The foreign ministry emphasized that Pakistan had been expressing its concerns over the activities of Daesh, which were “clearly detrimental to Pakistan,” adding that Islamabad’s position in this regard was regularly shared with the government of Afghanistan and other relevant stakeholders.
Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), said in a statement over the last weekend that it had arrested Farooqi along with 19 other extremists in a “complex operation.”
However, the Afghan Taliban denied that Farooqui was captured in a special security operation, saying that he had turned himself in to seek shelter since the Taliban had besieged Daesh fighters in Afghanistan’s northeastern Kunar province.
Farooqi is believed to the mastermind behind a Daesh-claimed terror attack on a Sikh temple in Kabul that took place late last month and killed at least 25 people.

Pakistan asks Afghanistan to extradite captured Daesh leader