NEW DELHI: Considered to be the top most religious scholar that was advising the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP), Sheikh Adul Wadood died last week due to natural cause and was buried under the presence and supervision of officials from the Pakistan military in Orakzai District, Kohat Division of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.

Sources told the Sunday Guardian that Wadood who was keeping unwell for the last few months had requested his handlers in Pakistan military, who were keeping him under protection, to be allowed to go to his native place to spend his last days.

The Sunday Guardian in its 10 December 2023 article- ‘ISIS leadership enjoying hospitality of Pakistan agencies’ had revealed the pictures and details about how Wadood along with other top leaders of ISKP, the regional Pakistan-Afghanistan branch of the Islamic State or Daesh was living under the protection of Pakistani military and its intelligence agencies while carrying out terror attacks inside Afghanistan to weaken the Taliban leadership. This had led to a series of disinformation campaigns on social media against the said article that was orchestrated by members and handlers reporting to Pakistan’s intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence.

The death and the performance of his last rites inside Pakistan has confirmed the assertions made by this newspaper and the fact the top leadership of ISKP and IS was being provided a safe haven inside Pakistan by its military. The article had revealed the identity of more than forty senior IS commanders who were living inside Pakistan under the patronage of its military. Almost all of them are still in Pakistan as ‘guests’ of the Pakistan military.

Sources aware of the matter told the Sunday Guardian that as per the policy adopted by the army in case of ‘terrorists’ , they are not to be given a proper burial nor their bodies are to be handed over to their family members, as has been widely reported in the case of members of the Balochi armed groups.

Wadood was in prison till August 2021 before being freed by the ISKP after the United State forces left Afghanistan.

As per local intelligence reports, ISKP has now at least 9000 members under its umbrella who are active in Afghanistan even as they continue to target Kabul while working as proxy of the Pakistan army that wants the Taliban government to acquiesce to orders from GHQ, Rawalpindi that have strategic implications for the entire region.

Intelligence generated by even those who are against the Taliban government have asserted that ISKP has avoided targeting the Pakistan army nor it has carried out an attack on the Pakistani soil despite having more than enough capabilities to do it. The ISKP members are freely traveling out from Pakistan via sea-route and air space that shows how the most dangerous terror group in the world is regrouping in India’s neighbour. Most of their stops are to former USSR countries, Syria and Turkey.

(With reporting by Sunday Guardian Live)