PESHAWAR: The Afghan Taliban said that one of the founding members of the terrorist organisation, ISIS Khorasan, Sheikh Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost, has surrendered to Afghan forces in Nangarhar.
The development came during a meeting in Nangarhar Province attended by security officials and local Taliban officials.
Dost was a well-known former Afghan jihadi commander and regional head of ISIS Khurasan. After the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, Commander Muslim Dost was arrested and remained incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay for over four year. He was accused of “engaging in terrorist activities with al-Qaeda and the Taliban.” Muslim Dost was hailed in the US as “the poet of Guantanamo Bay”.
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Last year, Dost parted ways with ISIS – Khurasan and emerged as a strong critic of the terrorist group. He had also fought as a Taliban leader against US forces in Afghanistan. He is also a leading member of Jamaat ud Dawa al Quran al Sunnat (JDQ).
The ISIS has claimed responsibility for several terrorist attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan, including the 4th March suicide attack at Shia mosque in Qissa Khwani Bazaar, Peshawar. According to the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI), 515 people have been killed and 893 injured in the last eight attacks by terrorist organisation. In addition, a total of 912 people were killed and 1,597 injured in 22 attacks in Afghanistan between 2016 and 2021.
In November 2014, ISIL had appointed Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost as Emir of “Khorasan Belt” but Dost had said that he was not appointed as its emir but had pledged allegiances the Islamic State.
The extremist organisation Daesh or Islamic State, which occupies large areas of Iraq and Syria had also extended the terror network to Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Khurasan Belt includes Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Central Asia and other countries in the region. However, Muslim
After his release, Muslim Dost wrote a book entitled “The Defeat of Guantanamo”, in which he recounts his memories of Guantanamo, Pakistani and Afghan prisons.