Families of slain, jailed IS militants in Peshawar received Afghan funding

The monetary aid was used to buy arms and serve families of the militants killed in IBOs

PESHAWAR: Militants of the notorious Islamic State (IS) group received financial assistance from inside Peshawar as well as across the border, revealed a startling report on Friday.

According to the report available with The Express Tribune, families of the terrorist outfit's slain commanders and foot soldiers were sent monetary aid from various religious factions and influential Afghan traders in the province.

The militants were killed in various military operations or were spending jail terms in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

IS, it said, formed a collective fund with the purpose to make financial aid available to their cadres. The report went on to add that even the family of a former commander and other militants received cash grant, sacrificial meat on the second day of Eid-ul-Azha.

The organisation had also reportedly hired a local expert and established a media cell in the provincial capital.



The report said that around Rs2 million were donated by those affiliated with the outfit; Rs0.7 million of which were used to buy arms from local factories. Another Rs1 million were distributed among the families of those killed in intelligence-based operations (IBOs).

The report stated that most foot soldiers and commanders of the defunct organisation had fled to Afghanistan after the killing of Afghan Taliban commander Maulana Daud Jalali in Peshawar's suburb, but the funding continued.

Majority of the IS-affiliated militants, operating under the garb of honey traders and running a media cell operated from Peshawar, were recently dismantled following an IBO.

According to reliable sources, security forces raided an IS base camp during a raid on a floor mill in Chamkani, Peshawar, in which many terrorists were killed, while others were arrested.



A list of those giving funds to the outfit in Peshawar and other parts of the province as well as literature and diagrams were also recovered during the raid.

A militant working with the organisation's media cell, which was being run in Tehkal area, was also nabbed during the raid, while another was apprehended from Chamkani, an official said. However, of late, both of them have been set free on bail, he added.

The official said, "We also have information that there are some groups collecting money for the IS in district Charsadda and Mardan and we are close to reaching them."

The sources also said that Mustafa, a commander of IS in K-P, was also killed during the Chamkani raid. Many of the terrorists killed in the operation had been planning to move to Afghanistan.