Kabul Gurdwara attacker was IS recruit from Kerala: Reports

Mangalore Today News Network

Afghanistan, Mar 27, 2020: An Indian national was one of the suicide bombers who attacked a gurdwara killing 25 Sikh worshippers in Kabul on Wednesday.

The Islamic State (IS) named one of the three terrorists who attacked the Gurudwara Har Rai Sahib as ’Abu Khalid Al-Hindi’, IndiaToday reported.

 

His photograph, holding a Type 56 assault rifle and pointing his finger up in a one-finger Tawhid salute, was published by IS in their propaganda magazine Al Naba on March 26.

Top police intelligence sources in Kerala told India Today that the photograph was actually that of Muhammad Muhsin, 21, believed to have died in a drone strike in Afghanistan last year.

Muhsin, an engineering student from Thrikkaripur in Kasargod district, was killed on June 18 last year.

Three IS terrorists opened fire and lobbed grenades at around 200 worshippers in the gurudwara at 7.45 am on March 25.

Afghan security forces ended the siege after a six-hour gun battle in which all three attackers were killed and 80 hostages were freed.

If Abu Khalid Al-Hindi is indeed Muhsin, it would be significant because it would make him only the second Indian suicide attacker in the IS.