Afghanistan turns down Pak's demand to handover mastermind of Kabul gurudwara attack

Islamabad: Afghanistan on Saturday turned down Pakistan’s demand to handover the chief of the Islamic State’s Khorasan unit, Aslam Farooqi, the mastermind behind a deadly terror attack on a prominent gurudwara in Kabul last month, according to a media report.

Pakistan’s Foreign Office said on Thursday that the demand was conveyed to the Afghan ambassador in Islamabad.

A heavily armed Islamic State-Khorasan suicide bomber stormed the gurdwara in the heart of Afghanistan’s capital on March 25, killing 25 Sikhs and injuring eight others.

Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security earlier this month said Farooqi, also known as Abdullah Orakzai, was arrested along with 19 other commanders in a “complex operation.”

The Afghan Foreign Ministry turned down Pakistan’s demand, saying Farooqi was involved in the killing of hundreds of Afghans, therefore, he should be tried under the law of the country, The Express Tribune reported.

The ministry said that Afghanistan and Pakistan have no extradition treaty and Kabul was under no obligation to hand over the IS-Khorasan chief.

It also said that the two countries could work together to curb terrorism in the region.

On Thursday, the ambassador of Afghanistan to Pakistan was called to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad and conveyed Pakistan’s demand.

“It was underscored to the ambassador that since Farooqi was involved in anti-Pakistan activities in Afghanistan, he should be handed over to Pakistan for further investigations,” said a statement issued by the Foreign Office here on Thursday.

It said that Pakistan had been expressing its concerns over the activities of the group, which were clearly detrimental to the country.