A former senior Islamic State leader has revealed that the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP) was and may still be, financed by Pakistan, according to Afghan Diaspora Network.
The Islamic State Khorasan Province is the regional affiliate of ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) and is active in South Asia and Central Asia.
Sheikh Abdul Rahim Muslimdost, who dissassociated with the terror group in 2015, was interviewed by the pro-Taliban media outlet “al-Mersaad” on how the ISKP was funded.
Muslimdost alleged that it received money from Pakistan and the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
According to Muslimdost, “ISKP also supported itself by kidnapping victims for ransoms in various countries. Financing from Pakistan has continued to this day…As part of the means used to achieve this end, the ISI created the TTP in late 2007 and the ISKP in 2014. Just how damning Muslimdost’s revelations are for Pakistan (and the US) may not be immediately obvious. The ISKP, among its many nefarious activities, has killed dozens of members of Pakistan’s religious minorities. It is ironic that Pakistani citizens are killed in Pakistan by terrorists funded by the money of Pakistan’s taxpayers, including the victims themselves,” Afghan Diaspora Network reported.
In the interview, circulated on Twitter by the Afghanistan Analysts Network, Muslimdost said that initially (in 2015) the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) had provided 50 lakh Pakistani rupees to the ISKP, Afghan Diaspora Network reported.
Muslimdost in the interview circulated on Twitter, said that “he was not the first Afghan who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in late 2014, but Mawlana Idris from Helmand, who graduated from Islamic Studies in Madina, was the first.”
The former Islamic State leader when asked how the fact that the ISKP receives money from Pakistan was compatible with the fact that the terrorist group attacked the Pakistani Embassy in Kabul on December 9, 2022, Muslimdost said that it was a false flag attack, “theatre” aimed precisely at denying rumors that the group was supported by Pakistan.
“The Pak Embassy attack in Kabul was just a #Drama. Nothing happened to the Ambassador. Just a bodyguard was injured,” Muslimdost said.
Muslimdost was a prominent member of the ISKP, a branch of the Islamic State (Daesh) active in Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Myanmar, until 2015, when he dissociated himself from the organization. In fact, he was one of its founders, according to Afghan Diaspora Network. (ANI)
