Kabul Airport suicide attacker was freed by Taliban after four years in CIA custody for New Delhi terror plot
FirstpostAbdul Rehman, a former engineering student with roots in Afghanistan’s Logar province and the son of a merchant who frequently visited New Delhi on business, was freed from Bagram prison on 15 August The Islamic State suicide bomber who killed at least 169 Afghan civilians and 13 United States soldiers outside Kabul airport last month was incarcerated in Afghanistan’s notorious Bagram prison for the past four years, thanks to Indian efforts, Firstpost has learnt through credible intelligence sources. His arrest had led to the termination of a plot by the Islamic State of Khurasan Province – the Islamic State’s regional wing in Afghanistan – to stage suicide bombings in New Delhi and other cities across the region, probably on the behest of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate. “Literally a decade’s work on counter-terrorism has been undone by the US’ failure to secure key prisoners in Bagram,” he said adding that the consequences of this failure will be “very far-reaching.” The Islamic State’s South Asia magazine, _Sawt al-Hind also confirmed in this weekend’s edition that the suicide bomber had earlier been arrested in New Delhi, in the course of a failed suicide-bombing plot. “It is possible he wanted revenge, or that he was persuaded by his old jihadist friends to atone for his role in the killings of his associates in this manner.” The New Delhi suicide-bombing plot, the sources said, had begun to take shape in the summer of 2016, soon after the Islamic State’s military shura, or council, picked jihad commander Aslam Faruqi to lead the organisation.