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Kabul bomber was deported by India 5 yrs ago: Magazine with IS links

The magazine said it was he who was behind the Kabul airport bombing, adding that it had killed 250 people, including 13 Americans and a dozen “apostate” Taliban.

Kabul, Kabul attack, Afghan Taliban, Afghanistan crisis, A journey through Kabul, Evacuation from Kabul, world news, Indian expressPeople transport a body for burial in the hills outside of Kabul, Afghanistan on Friday, Aug. 27, 2021, who was killed a day earlier in the suicide bombing attack outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. (Victor J. Blue/The New York Times)

A magazine known to be associated with the Islamic State has claimed that the suicide bomber who targeted the Kabul airport as it thronged with people seeking to leave last month, killing over 200 people, had been arrested in India five years ago and then deported to Afghanistan.

Identifying the bomber as “Abdur Rahman al-logri”, the pro-IS magazine Sawt-al-Hind (Voice of India) said, “The brother was arrested 5 years ago in India, when he had traveled to Delhi to carry out an Istishadhi (martyrdom) operation on the ciw (cow) worshipping Hindus in revenge for Kashmir.”

The magazine said it was he who was behind the Kabul airport bombing, adding that it had killed 250 people, including 13 Americans and a dozen “apostate” Taliban.

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Sources in the Indian security establishment did not confirm or deny the claims made by the magazine. In 2017, the Indian intelligence agencies had deported an Afghan national staying in Lajpat Nagar, Delhi, on suspicions of working for the Islamic State, and the US forces had taken him into custody in Afghanistan.

Hailing the attacker, Sawt-al-Hind said, “… the brother was tested with imprisonment and was deported to Afghanistan… Staying true to his promise to Allah, the brother didn’t go home, rather he carried out his operation, his heart filled with tranquillity and pleasure, we consider him such and Allah is his judge.”

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It said that ahead of the US withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, the Kabul airport had thousands of “Afghani bureaucrats trying to leave with their families, along with traitors and killers of Muslimeen”.

Sources said the interrogation of the Afghan national who had been deported by India in 2017 had led to several anti-IS operations by the US forces in Afghanistan.

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The Indian Express had reported on the youth, who was in his mid-20s, in July 2018, saying he was part of a group of 12 IS operatives sent out after training in Pakistan to carry out attacks in the region. An 18-month-long surveillance operation in Afghanistan, Dubai and New Delhi had yielded intelligence on the 12, with the Afghan national, the “son of a wealthy businessman”, being given New Delhi as his target.

The Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW) had first spotted suspicious transfer of $50,000 by individuals under its watch from Dubai to a location in Afghanistan, leading to the surveillance. At the same time, intelligence was shared by the US with New Delhi on the Capital being a possible target for an IS strike.

The Express had reported that as part of his undercover mission, the Afghan youth had got himself admitted to a private engineering college on the outskirts of Delhi, along the highway to Faridabad. Initially, he lived in the college hostel but had subsequently rented an apartment in Lajpat Nagar.

First uploaded on: 19-09-2021 at 04:07 IST
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