PESHAWAR: Militants of the notorious Islamic State (IS) group have been receiving financial assistance from inside Peshawar as well as across the border, revealed a startling report on Friday.
According to the report available with The Express Tribune, families of the terrorist outfit’s slain commanders and foot soldiers received monetary aid from various religious factions and influential Afghan traders in the province.
The militants had been killed in various military operations or spending jail terms in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
IS, it said, had formed a collective fund with the purpose to make financial aid available to their cadres. The report went on to add that even the family of a former commander and other militants received cash grant, sacrificial meat on the second day of Eid-ul-Azha.
The organisation has also hired a local expert and established a media cell in the provincial capital.
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The report said around Rs2 million were donated by those affiliated with the outfit; Rs0.7 million of which were used to buy arms from local factories. Another Rs1 million were distributed among the families of those killed in intelligence-based operations (IBOs).
The report stated that most foot soldiers and commanders of the defunct organisation fled to Afghanistan after the killing of Afghan Taliban commander Maulana Daud Jalali in Peshawar’s suburb, but the funding continued.
The majority of the IS-affiliated militants, operating under the garb of honey traders and running a media cell operated from Peshawar, were recently dismantled following an IBO.
According to reliable sources, intelligence agencies encountered an IS base camp during a raid on a floor mill in Chamkani, Peshawar, in which many terrorists were killed, while others were arrested.
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A list of those giving funds to the outfit in Peshawar and other parts of the province, literature and diagrams was also recovered.
A militant working with the organisation’s media cell, which was being run in Tehkal area, was also nabbed during the raid, while another was apprehended from Chamkani, an official said. However, of late, both of them had been set free on bail, he added.
The official said, “We also have information that there are some groups collecting money for IS in district Charsadda and Mardan and we are close to reaching them.”
It is pertinent to mention that Mustafa was a commander of IS in K-P while Khalil a local commander, killed during the raid in Chamkani. The majority of their accomplices who planned to shift to Afghanistan were also killed in the operation.
The post Families of slain, jailed IS militants in Peshawar received Afghan funding appeared first on The Express Tribune.
Source: Tribune News | Families of slain, jailed IS militants in Peshawar received Afghan funding
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