Mahdi Arsalan, one of the leaders of Jamaat Ansarullah, was arrested by the Taliban on charges of collaborating with the terrorist organization Islamic State-Wilayat Khorasan (IS-Khurasan).
Kabul, May 14 - Sangar, Farzam Kazemi. This is the same man who shot about 20 police officers in Badakhshan province and is accused of committing brutal war crimes.
A Taliban Defense Ministry source told Sangar that, according to military intelligence charges, Mahdi Arsalan made contact with IS-Khurasan leaders in Pakistan, met with them in the Afghan province of Kunar, and received a huge amount of money.
“With this sum, he came to the north of Afghanistan, bought various types of weapons such as M4, M16, and RPGs and ammunition from arms dealers in Badakhshan, Takhar, and Kunduz, and armed his forces in the Yangi Kala district of Takhar province, Imam Sahib district of Kunduz province, and in the city of Kunduz itself, on the street that is now known as the street of “Tajikistanis,” the source said.
According to this source, he tried to take over the overall leadership of several terrorist organizations such as Jamaat Ansarullah, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, and others in northern Afghanistan.
“To this end, he met with Sirajuddin Haqqani, the interior minister, and Mullah Yaqub, the Taliban defense minister, and asked for their support. He told them that he want to attack the countries of Central Asia with his own forces. Haqqani said nothing about his plans and preferred to remain silent. Mehdi takes this as a sign of agreement and also wants to meet Mulla Yaqub. But Yaqub did not agree with him and told him that his plans would destroy the relationship of the Islamic Emirate with its neighbors,” the source said.
According to him, during interrogation, Mahdi Arsalan admitted that he received orders and money from the leaders of IS-Khurasan in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“Now he is imprisoned in the fourth block of the Pul Charkhi prison. The court has not yet issued a verdict on his crime. There is a possibility of detaining his accomplices from IS-Khorasan, on whom the military intelligence of the Taliban is working,” the source said.
Mohammad Sharifov, nicknamed Mahdi Arsalan, a native of Tajikistan, is considered one of the leaders of Jamaat Ansarullah and is married to the daughter of Nasim, a resident of the village of Khogaz, Nusay district, Badakhshan province.
This is the same man whose terrorist fighters shot about 20 police officers in the last days of the republic in the Moimay region, Darvazha region of Badakhshan province, and also committed other war crimes in Afghanistan.
In July 2022, inspired by the Afghan Taliban, he founded another organization called the Tehriki Taliban of Tajikistan (TTT), but his plan did not find financial support from the Taliban and foreign intelligence agencies. Apparently, his attempts to become the commander of IS-Khurasan in the north of Afghanistan to attack the countries of Central Asia were also unsuccessful, although he found his patrons in Pakistan.
IS-Khorasan is currently the strongest enemy of the Taliban in Afghanistan. According to Taliban military intelligence, the US and Pakistan want to replace the Taliban with IS- Khorasan in the Afghan war scene. In their opinion, the Taliban to some extent took independence from them and cooperate with Iran, Russia, and China.
