By Mrityunjoy Kumar Jha

New Delhi, Mar 11 (IANS): Islamic State's affiliate ISIS-K or Islamic State- Khurasan has claimed that its one Indian suicide bomber recruit has died in a suicide attack in Afghanistan.

In the latest issue of its propaganda magazine, Voice of Khurasan, the Sunni radical outfit has identified him by his pseudonym Najeeb Al Hindi from Kerala. Without giving more details, the paper said 23-year-old with a MTech degree, Najib had come on his own travelling from Kerala to Khorasan at the headquarter of the ISKP.

"Allah guided Najeeb and opened the doors of Hijra for him," said the paper. The ISIS-K did not give any details about his joining the group.

"He was very quiet and spoke when needed, with always a smile on his face. Never complaining about the difficult life of mountains, the only thing going on in his mind was Shahadah."

According to the article, Najeeb after being forced by his friends, Najeeb got married to a Pakistani girl who used to work for the ISIS-K. On the wedding night Najeeb volunteered for suicide bombing and achieved "shahadat" in the battle filed like Hanjala ibn Abi Amir, one of the companions of the Prophet Muhammad, who also went for the battle on his marriage day and achieved "Shahadah".

According to Indian intelligence sources there are 25 Indians who have joined the terror group ISIS-K in Afghanistan. In 2019, the previous Afghan government had stated that 408 members of the Islamic State from 13 countries were lodged in Afghanistan prisons. This included four Indian women, 16 Chinese, 299 Pakistanis, two Bangladeshis, two from the Maldives among others. The Indian women had gone to Afghanistan with their husbands to join ISIS-K in 2016-18. Their husbands were killed in different attacks in Afghanistan.

According to a report by The Hindustan Times, at least 14 Kerala residents are part of the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) terror group after being freed by the Taliban from Bagram jail last year in August. One out of the 14 Keralites contacted his home in the southern state, while the remaining 13 are still at large with the ISIS-K terrorist group.

The militant group ISIS-K has also criticised the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) over its statements on disassociating from attacks on the Shias and from the global jihad and asking support from the US.

Congratulating the group for the recent attacks in Pakistan including on a Shia Mosque in Peshawar it said that the ISIS-K has resumed its operations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan especially in Bajaur, Waziristan, & Peshawar.