Taliban say some 1,800 Islamic State members freed after seizing power in Afghanistan

Taliban-installed authorities in Afghanistan have claimed that about 1,800 members of the Islamic State jihadist group were released from two prisons after the fundamentalists seized power in August 2021 following the flight of the then president, Ashraf Ghani, and in the final stages of the withdrawal of international troops.

Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Jan Mutaqi indicated from Uzbekistan’s capital Tashkent, where he participated in an international conference, that these inmates were released from Bagram and Pul-e-Charji prisons, before stressing that Afghan security forces have since launched operations to arrest them.

Thus, he stressed that these jihadists would be behind several attacks during the last few months in the capital, Kabul, as reported by the Afghan news agency Jaama Press. The United States had already warned in the past that the release of Islamic State members had strengthened the group, which has increased its attacks in recent months.

Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), which considers the Taliban traitors to the orthodoxy of ‘sharia’ or Islamic law and advocates a much harsher interpretation, has been the target of a security campaign by the Taliban in the face of its attacks, some of them targeting mosques, which have left hundreds dead in Afghanistan.