Afghan security forces said on Saturday they had arrested the head of the Islamic State's Afghan branch and 19 other jihadists.
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The Afghan National Security Council (NSC) said in a statement that Islam Farooqi, also known as Abdullah Orakzai, had been arrested with other men during a "complex operation" . An NSC official speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP that Farooqi was the organizer of an attack on a Hindu-Sikh temple in Kabul that killed at least 25 people on March 25.
Known as the Islamic State in Khorasan (IS-K), the Afghan branch of IS has multiplied the attacks in the Afghan capital, often against religious minorities, but it has been on the defensive for a few months in front of operations carried out against jihadists by American forces and, separately, by the Taliban.
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In its statement, the NSC said that Farooqi confessed to having links with "regional intelligence services" , a transparent allusion to Pakistan. Afghanistan regularly accuses Islamabad of supporting the jihadists and helping the Taliban. Pakistan rejects these accusations.