Pakistan Funding Islamic State in Afghanistan, Attack on Embassy in Kabul A Drama: Former IS Leader

A former founding member of the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) has claimed that Pakistan is providing funds to the ISIS group.

In a recent interview, Sheikh Abdul Rahim Muslimdost, who surrendered before the Taliban, claimed that the fund to ISKP, which is behind the recent suicide attacks in Afghanistan, was provided by Pakistan and the central team of ISIS.

Muslimdost made the revelations during an interview with pro-Taliban al-Mersaad media.

He further claimed that initially in 2015, when ISIS was spreading its roots in Syria and Iraq, Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba provided 50 lakh Pakistani Rupee to the ISKP. He added that extortion and kidnappings were another source of income.

Muslimdost further added that he was not the first Afghan who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in late-2014, but it was Mawlana Idris from Helmand, who had graduated from Islamic Studies in Madina.

When asked about why ISKP attacked the Pakistan embassy in Kabul, the former member said it was just a drama.

“The PAK embassy attack in Kabul was just a drama. Nothing happened to the Pakistani Ambassador. Only a bodyguard was injured. They want to whitewash the ISKP group,” he said.

Media reports said Abdul Rahim Muslimdost, the founding member of the Islamic State’s Khorasan branch, surrendered to the Taliban in March 2022 after it seized power in August 2021.

The IS group has emerged as the biggest security challenge to the Taliban government since last year, carrying out attacks against Afghan civilians as well as foreigners and foreign interests.

The Taliban and IS share an austere Sunni Islamist ideology, but the latter are fighting to establish a global “caliphate” instead of the Taliban’s more inward-looking aim of ruling an independent Afghanistan.

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