ISIS attacks in Afghanistan being directed by Hafiz Saeed: Afghan officials to Pakistan

NEW DELHI: The Afghanistan government on Tuesday complained to Pakistani officials that former Lashka-e-Taiba chief Hazif Muhammad Saeed is directing Islamic State attacks in Afghanistan, an American media outlet has reported.
The US government-funded Voice of America has carried a report from Islamabad, that quotes an Afghan government statement that it had told Pakistani officials about Saeed’s involvement with the ISIS in Afghanistan.
Afghan officials also reportedly sought Islamabad’s cooperation in preventing ISIS terrorists from entering Afghanistan from Pakistan.
Afghanistan’s assertion came at high-level meeting in Kabul on Tuesday. The meeting was meant to focus on security along the AfPak border, and was attended by officials from Afghanistan, Pakistan and NATO.
Pakistan is yet to respond to the assertion from Kabul, the Voice of America report said.
The report also states that Kabul’s accusation against Saeed caused a fair bit of confusion among officials and journalists in Pakistan on Wednesday. The confusion was over doubts over whether the Afghan officials were confusing Hafiz Muhammad Saeed with Hafiz Saeed Khan, chief of the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP). ISKP is the Afghanistan arm of ISIS.
The Voice of America report also noted that this was the first allegation of links between ISIS and Hafiz Saeed, who is a designated terrorist by India and the US. He is accused by India of being behind a number of attacks on its soil, including the 26/11 Mumbai attack.