A man from Kerala’s Kasargod district is suspected to be one of the three gunmen who carried out an attack on a gurdwara in Kabul on March 25, The Indian Express reported on Saturday. Around 25 people were killed in the attack.
The Islamic State in Khorasan Province has claimed responsibility for the attack. All the three terrorists were gunned down by the Afghan security forces. “We know that at least one of them is an Indian, and the identity of the other two is being ascertained,” an unidentified government official told The Hindu.
The official said the person was identified as Mohsin from Thrikaripur in Kasaragod. The 29-year-old was a school dropout who left for the United Arab Emirates more than two years ago.
Al Naba, the ISKP’s propaganda wing, identified the attacker as Abu Khalid Al-Hindi. The other aliases used for him were Abdul Khayoom and Abdul Khalid. The magazine also published a photograph of him after the Kabul attack. The photograph shows a man holding a Type 56 assault rifle.
Another unidentified official said Mohsin’s mother claimed that she received a message over the Telegram phone application that her son had died in the Kabul attack. “However, when we asked her to show the message she said she had deleted it out of fear,” the official told The Indian Express. “As of now we have the family’s claim to go by.”
However, government officials said the police never got any missing complaint from the family, neither was any police case ever lodged against him. “They claim he was not in touch with them all these years,” said the official. “We are ascertaining the entire chain of events.” The official added that investigation was on to trace when and how he joined the Islamic State group. The Khorasan Province group came into existence in 2015.
The Ministry of Home Affairs is yet to decide if the case should be handed over to the National Investigation Agency, reported IANS. According to the amended NIA Act, the central agency can take over the investigation into a terror attack overseas if any of the victims is Indian.
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