Two suspected Daesh recruits were detained by the Taliban when they tried to enter Afghanistan through its northern border last fall, The Guardian reports.
The newspaper cited an unnamed Taliban source as saying that the two were carrying more than £10,000 ($13,000) in cash, military fatigues, and night-vision goggles in their bags, and that they were arrested after a tipoff from Uzbekistan.
“There was one passport from England and one from another country in Europe”, the source claimed, arguing that the men were seized at the border crossing of Hairatan.
The insider added that the two told border guards they had family ties in Jalalabad, the capital of eastern Nangarhar province, and that they were travelling to visit relatives.
At the same time, the source argued, the men “struggled to explain their luggage”, which purportedly included combat vests that the insider described as “suicide vests without explosives”. When questioned, the suspected Daesh recruits reportedly asserted the vests were just things that they found “interesting”.
Asked about how the men would be treated, the source stressed that “the mujahideen are very aware of Daesh and are working on this issue very hard”. The insider added that he had no direct information on their future, but that the Taliban’s general policy for Daesh detainees was clear.
“The rules from our leader are to just finish them, don’t let them do anything. No mercy”, the source said.
In November, UN Special Representative Deborah Lyons told the UN Security Council that Daesh’s affiliate in Afghanistan, known as Daesh Khorasan (Daesh-K), had a presence in every province in the South Asian nation. According to her, Daesh-K, which is seen as an ideological foe of the Taliban, has carried out multiple large-scale suicide attacks in Kabul and other big cities since the Taliban took power in the country in August 2021.
At the time, the Taliban wrapped up an offensive against Afghan government forces, entering the capital Kabul without a shot on 15 August and declaring the end of the war. Subsequent weeks saw a mass evacuation of citizens from Western countries and Afghans cooperating with them from Kabul Airport.
On the night of 31 August, the US military finally left Kabul Airport, putting an end to a nearly 20-year American military presence in Afghanistan. In early September, an interim government of Afghanistan was announced, chaired by Mohammad Hasan Akhund, who headed the Foreign Ministry during the first rule of the Taliban and has been under UN sanctions since 2001.
*Daesh (ISIL/ISIS/Islamic State), a terrorist group banned in Russia and a number of other countries
**the Taliban, a militant group is currently under UN sanctions over terrorist activities