Kabul Gurudwara attack: Islamic State suicide bomber an Indian

In this article Senior Journalist, Sanjib Kr Baruah talks about the recent targeting of the Sikhs - a minority religious community in Afghanistan - allegedly by the Islamic State of Khorasan (ISK) which left twenty-eight people dead. Adhering to radical Salafist-Wahhabi Islamic ideology, the Afghanistan-headquartered ISK is a self-declared ‘wilayat’ (province) under the overall control of the ‘caliphate’ of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

New Delhi:The suspected Islamic State of Khorasan (ISK) suicide bomber who blew himself up inside the Dharamshala gurudwara in the Shorbazar area of central Kabul on Wednesday was an Indian hailing from Kasaragod in Kerala.

An ISK post, identifying the suicide bomber as Abu Khalid al-Hindi, claimed the attack was to “avenge the plight of oppressed Muslims in Kashmir”.

According to a government security source, Abu Khalid al-Hindi is none other than Mohammed Sajid Kuthirummal also known as Saji and Sajid, who joined the Islamic State after flying out from Mumbai to Dubai on March 31, 2015.

The Indian government believes that quite a few persons from Kasaragod had left for Afghanistan to join the Islamic State and to live under ‘a Caliphate where Islamic laws prevailed’.

Twenty-eight people died in the gurudwara attack for which the ISK claimed responsibility although sources in the Afghanistan government said it was the Pakistan-sponsored Haqqani terror outfit that was behind the attack.

On Thursday, a magnetic bomb also exploded about 50 metres from the funeral ground where the Sikhs were cremated.

A gurudwara is a place of worship of Sikhs. There were about 150 Sikh worshippers inside the gurudwara when the attack started at about 7:45 AM. About 25 people died in the attack while many were injured.

According to media reports, Abu Khalid had fired bursts from his automatic weapons at the worshippers and lobbed grenades before blowing himself up.

Abu Khalid already figures in the “wanted persons” list of the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

ISK was set up in Afghanistan on January 10, 2015, and now has a strong presence in Nangarhar, Kunar and certain pockets of Kabul.

Afghanistan is also combating the scourge of coronavirus and its capital Kabul is expected to be under a lockout for 21 days from Saturday onwards.

Adhering to radical Salafist-Wahhabi Islamic ideology, the Afghanistan-headquartered ISK is a self-declared ‘wilayat’ (province) under the overall control of the ‘caliphate’ of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), one of the most brutal terror organisations known in recent times with videographed public mass executions as its trademark.

Comprising several thousand fighters, the ISK received a fillip when about 2,000 jihadists of the Tehrik-e-Khaliphat Pakistan (TKP), a prominent faction of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), issued a pledge of allegiance to the ISK.

The ISK had made attractive offers of $500-a-month salary (about Rs 30,000) and laptops to new recruits including those from India.

Last year, the ISK, perhaps realizing the distinct importance of India and Pakistan had set up ‘Wilayat al-Hind’ branch for India and the ‘Wilayat Pakistan’ for Pakistan on May 10, 2019, and May 15, 2019, respectively.