Ahmad, a commander of NDS special forces, who led the operation to arrest Aslam Farooqi, the leader of the Khorasan branch of Daesh, said the operation was the most complex and precise operation he had carried out in his seven years of duty.

Ahmad, a 26-year-old NDS commander, said he and his subordinates originally intended to arrest an explosives and weapons supplier named Shah Wali who was active in Kandahar, but Ahmad said his (Shah Wali's) arrest opened the way for further successive operations in Kandahar.

“Our operation lasted six days and nights, and we carried out twelve operations and we carried them slowly because they (enemies) had moved to civilian areas,” added Ahmad.

Ahmad said that during their second operation in Kandahar, he and his associates found that they were closer to Aslam Farooqi, the leader of the Khorasan branch of Daesh, than ever before, and that they would reach him if they proceeded cautiously.

“An operation was carried out in four or five parts of the city (in one of the southern provinces), and Aslam Farooqi was in one of the districts when we arrested him,” Ahmad added.

Abdullah Orakzai, also known as Aslam Farooqi, was a resident of Akhondzadagan village of Orakzai agency, which is located in the tribal areas of Pakistan.

In addition to leading the Khorasan branch of Daesh, Farooqi also carried out responsibilities such as recruiting Daesh in Pakistan and running international communications for the Khorasan branch of Daesh.

After the peace agreement between the United States and the Taliban, only two major terrorist attacks took place in Kabul - one was an attack on a ceremony marking the anniversary of the death of Abdul Ali Mazari, leader of the Hezb-e Wahdat party, in which thirty-two people died, and the other was an attack on the Sikh’s shrine in Kabul, which killed twenty-six people. Both attacks were claimed by Daesh.

“There is a real Daesh that is in contact with Syria and Iraq, and a second Daesh that originally operated under the umbrella of the real Daesh in some provinces and districts. Perhaps the information about this person (Aslam Farooqi), was given to the Afghan security forces by another Daesh group,” said Khan Agha Rezaie, a parliament member.

“The arrest of Aslam Farooqi is a major achievement for the government and national security forces; it means that Daesh has been defeated in Afghanistan,” said Jawed Safai, a member of parliament.

Mullah Abdul Rauf Khadem, Hafiz Saeed, Abdul Haseeb Logari and Abu Saeed Bajuri were the Daesh leaders who were killed between 1393 and 1397 (solar years) in government forces operations in Nangarhar province.