ISLAMABAD – Pakistani security agencies arrested an alleged recruiter for the Islamic State group in
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the eastern city of Lahore, officials said on Thursday.
Police and intelligence officials said the Pakistani-Syrian man, named Yousaf al-Salafi, was arrested over the weekend along with two accomplices.
The officials told newsmen that Al-Salafi reached Pakistan from Syria via Turkey in September 2014.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10″]
The arrests came days after a video purportedly showing some Pakistani Taliban commanders announcing allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was posted on jihadi websites.
Officials said Al-Salafi visited Taliban fighters in their hideouts in the north-western tribal regions near the Afghan border, speculating that his activities and the video might be linked.
There are signs that the Islamic State group is growing in influence among Islamist militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan, a region long dominated by al-Qaeda.
In 2014, three Pakistani-Australians were detained in Pakistan for allegedly recruiting militants for the IS, which controled large swathes of territories in Iraq and Syria.
According to Pakistani intelligence officials, they believed IS is attempting to seek support from anti-Shiite militants capable of carrying out terrorist attacks inside Iranian territory.
Authorities have stepped up surveillance of Islamic seminaries and people linked with radical groups in the wake of the Lahore arrests.
“We are on high alert,’’ provincial Home Minister Shuja Khanzada said. (dpa/NAN)
Pakistan arrests suspected recruiter for Islamic State
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