Islamabad: The day after the murder of a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban in Afghanistan, Aslam Farooqi, the former head of the Islamic State of Khurasan (IS-K), has been shot down in a shootout in the northern country, local media reported on Monday.
Farooqi was behind the March 2020 attack on a Gurudwara in Kabul where 27 Sikh worshipers were killed.
Farooqi’s report was confirmed by the local residents and close relatives of the Is-K leader in Orakzai’s originated area, one of the pakistani districts which flared up along the border with Afghanistan.
The shooting incident occurred in a remote place in North Afghanistan on Sunday.
His body, according to the local population, will reach his hometown on Tuesday.
Farooqi has replaced the former group leader, known as Abu Omar Khorasani, as head of IS-K in July 2019, after the group suffered a setback under pressure from military operations by the US, the Afghan government and the Taliban in Nangarhar Province in East Afghar.
In April 2020, he was arrested by the National Security Directorate (NDS), a spy institution of the former Afghan government supported by America, from Kandahar in connection with terrorist attacks on Gurdwara in Kabul where 26 Afghanistan Sikh and India were killed.
After the takeover of Taliban Kabul in August 2021, Farooqi was released from prison, like other terrorists, who were in Afghan prison.
There are conflicting reports of Farooqi’s death.
Some sources suggested that he be killed during an investigation by the Afghan government security agency relating to organized kidnapers and criminal mafia.
The investigation was reported to produce clashes and Farooqi, along with his maids, killed.
However, there was also a report that the IS-K leader was killed during internal disputes in IS-K.
His death came a week after Khalid Balti, aka Muhammad Khurassani, Operational Commander and Spokesperson for the Pakistan (TTP) Tehreek-e-Taliban which was prohibited, was killed in Nangarhar Province.
Balti comes from the northern region of Pakistan at Gilgit-Baltistan.