PESHAWAR: Afghan Taliban on Thursday claimed that over 600 militants of the so called Islamic State have been arrested during the past three months.
A spokesman for Afghanistan’s intelligence directorate Khalil Hamraz told reporters in Kabul that the detainees include several key ISIS Khurasan commanders. Hamraz said that the ISIS detainees have been kept in a jail with tight security. The spokesman also claimed that 40 militants had been killed in the ongoing operations against the group across the country.
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The Taliban spokesman also accused the former Afghan government of releasing 1,800 ISIS Khurasan militants and countless criminals from prisons just before the Taliban took power in August. He claimed that the released militants were behind the recent car bombings and terrorist activities in different parts of Afghanistan.
ISIL Khurasan has claimed responsibility for dozens of terrorist attacks in Afghanistan, including suicide bombings in Shiite mosques, killing hundreds of innocent worshipers. The Taliban has also released a detailed list of operations against the ISIL with the aim to dispel the impression that the group is not taking effective measures to curb terrorism.
Earlier, the United States special envoy for Afghanistan, Thomas West, said that the presence of the ISIS-Khurasan and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan is a matter of concern for Washington. He hoped that the Taliban would take effective action to eliminate the threat from the region. “Washington strongly condemn the recent attacks in Afghanistan in which hundreds of innocent people were killed,” Thomas West has said.
The United States also fear that ISIS and al Qaeda could launch attack outside Afghanistan as it is a threat to the peace in the world. “We are deeply concerned about the presence of al Qaeda in Afghanistan and we continue to raise this issue in our ongoing negotiations with the Taliban,” he said.