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Bitter Winter

A magazine on religious liberty and human rights

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Home / From the World / News Global

Former Islamic State Commander Says Terrorist Group Financed from Pakistan

03/23/2023Massimo Introvigne |

Sheikh Abdul Rahim Muslimdost said the December 2022 attack against the Pakistani Embassy in Kabul was just “theatre” organized to deny the connection.

by Massimo Introvigne

Muslimdost’s interview by “al-Mersaad.” Screenshot.
Muslimdost’s interview by “al-Mersaad.” Screenshot.

A former senior Islamic State leader has publicly acknowledged that the terrorist organization was, and may still be, financed by Pakistan. Sheikh Abdul Rahim Muslimdost was interviewed by the pro-Taliban media outlet “al-Mersaad.”

Until 2015, when he dissociated himself from the organization, Muslimdost was a prominent member of the Islamic State—Khorasan Province, the branch of the Islamic State (Dahesh) active in Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Myanmar. In fact, he had been one of its founders.

In the interview, aired last week and circulated on Twitter by the respected Afghanistan Analysts Network, Muslimdost explained 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.”

About how the Islamic State—Khorasan Province was financed, Muslimdost claimed that it received money both from the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq and from Pakistan. It also supported itself by kidnapping victims for ransoms in various countries. Muslimdost believes that financing from Pakistan has continued to this day.

An old image of Muslimdost. Screenshot.
An old image of Muslimdost. Screenshot.

Muslimdost was asked in the interview how the fact that the Islamic State—Khorasan Province receives money from Pakistan may be compatible with the fact that the terrorist group attacked the Pakistani Embassy in Kabul on December 9, 2022. He answered that it was a false attack, “theater” 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.

Just how damning Muslimdost’s revelations are for Pakistan may not be immediately obvious to Western readers. The Islamic State—Khorasan Province, among its many nefarious activities, has killed dozens of devotees of Pakistan’s religious minorities inside the territory of Pakistan. If what Muslimdost says is true, it appears that Pakistani citizens are killed in Pakistan by terrorists funded by money of Pakistan’s taxpayers, including the victims themselves.

Tagged With: Pakistan, Terrorism

Massimo Introvigne
Massimo Introvigne

Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955 in Rome) is an Italian sociologist of religions. He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an international network of scholars who study new religious movements. Introvigne is the author of some 70 books and more than 100 articles in the field of sociology of religion. He was the main author of the Enciclopedia delle religioni in Italia (Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy). He is a member of the editorial board for the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion and of the executive board of University of California Press’ Nova Religio.  From January 5 to December 31, 2011, he has served as the “Representative on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, with a special focus on discrimination against Christians and members of other religions” of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). From 2012 to 2015 he served as chairperson of the Observatory of Religious Liberty, instituted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to monitor problems of religious liberty on a worldwide scale.

www.cesnur.org/

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