Afghan intel links Moscow, Tehran attacks to Pakistan

New Delhi: Authoritative sources within Afghanistan’s intelligence apparatus have alleged that Pakistan continues to provide safe havens and operational space to the ISIS project inside its territory, warning that the network now poses a direct threat not only to Afghanistan but also to global security.

According to the information shared with this newspaper, Afghan intelligence believes Pakistan has turned a blind eye to the presence of ISIS-linked training and recruitment centers operating from parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. These centers, the sources claim, are being used to recruit fighters from various countries, train them in extremist ideology, and transport them onward through Pakistan’s western borders and airports in Karachi and Islamabad.

The sources described this as a “dangerous game” that risks destabilizing the entire region. They said the roots of the ISIS-Khorasan movement inside Afghanistan can be traced back to Pakistan’s Orakzai area, where its first leader, Saeed Khan, was based and where hundreds of Pakistani nationals joined its ranks.

While the Islamic Emirate’s forces were engaged in fighting foreign occupiers, they also fought the ISIS group to prevent it from defaming Islam and jihad, the sources said. After taking control of Afghanistan, the Emirate’s fighters continued to pursue and eliminate ISIS cells, eventually forcing their remnants to flee across the border into Pakistan, where they allegedly reorganized.

Afghan intelligence claims that several major international attacks — including the assault on a gathering commemorating General Qassem Soleimani in Tehran and the Moscow concert hall attack — were planned, coordinated and executed from these Pakistani centers. “Those states are aware of this and how all this originated from Pakistan and how it was handled by Pakistan deep state,” one source added.

The information shared lists a series of attacks inside Afghanistan that were allegedly directed from Pakistani soil, including the assassinations of religious scholars Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani and Sheikh Mujeeb-ur-Rahman Ansari, attacks on Sufi and Shia places of worship, targeted killings of provincial officials, and bombings on ministries, banks and public offices across several provinces.

Afghan intelligence also cited recent operations in February 2025 in Mastung, Balochistan, where local armed groups reportedly attacked ISIS hideouts and killed up to thirty fighters, including several foreign nationals. “Some European passports were recovered from those centers,” the sources said, arguing that foreign recruits are being trained there before being sent to conduct attacks in Europe and other countries.

The sources further warned that the ISIS-K network is now attempting to reorganize in the same Pakistani centers to plan future operations both within Afghanistan and abroad. This time, they noted, the group may use operatives from countries other than Tajikistan to avoid exposure.

The information shared also identifies key ISIS-K figures allegedly hiding inside Pakistan: the group’s leader Shahab al-Muhajir, his close associates Abdul Hakim Tohidi and Sultan Aziz Azzam, and Salahuddin Rajab, who is said to coordinate contacts with ISIS central. 

The sources cautioned that if Pakistan continues what they termed its “hostile behavior” toward Afghanistan and its violations of Afghan sovereignty, such actions would lead to “very negative and undesirable consequences.”

They also accused Pakistani authorities of attempting to conceal recent setbacks by releasing fabricated footage from the war in Ukraine and presenting it as scenes from clashes along the Afghan border.

The information, while unverified independently, marks one of the most direct and detailed sets of allegations yet from Afghan intelligence circles about Pakistan’s alleged role in supporting and sheltering ISIS-K operatives.