Pakistan arrests top Islamic State Khorasan leader, says UN report

Pakistan has captured a leader from an offshoot of the Islamic State jihadist group, a senior intelligence official said on Friday (December 19, 2025), after the arrest was reported by a UN sanctions monitoring group.

Sultan Aziz Azam, who also acted as a spokesman for the Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K), was arrested on May 16, according to a UN committee’s sanctions monitoring report submitted to the Security Council in November.

“He was not just a spokesman but regarded as one of the top leaders for the group in the region,” the Pakistani intelligence official told AFP on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to media.

“The arrest was not made public as it could have affected counterterrorism operations” initiated after Azam’s questioning, the official added.

IS-K, the local branch of the Islamic State group, has claimed responsibility for some of the most horrific attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan and beyond in recent years, many targeting civilians.

In March 2024 its gunmen killed more than 140 people at a Moscow concert hall, and the group has carried out a series of deadly attacks in both Afghanistan and Pakistan since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.

The intelligence official and the UN report did not specify which country Azam was captured in.

Taliban authorities have repeatedly said security is their top priority and vowed to crack down on IS-K and other militant groups operating in Afghanistan.

Pakistan has accused the Taliban of allowing Afghan soil to be used to harbour militants and the relationship between the two countries has deteriorated sharply with deadly border clashes in recent months.

Islamabad has carried out intensive border operations against militant groups, including airstrikes in October on Afghan territory that security sources say were aimed at targeting another group, the Pakistani Taliban.

The UN report said both countries’ efforts were making a dent against IS-K.

“Overall, the capability of ISIL-K has been degraded as a result of counter-terrorism operations by the de facto authorities and Pakistan,” said the UN report, referring to the Taliban’s government which is not formally recognised by any country except Russia.

However, “the group remains resilient” and Afghan authorities have not completely eliminated its hideouts in the north and east, the report said, estimating that is has around 2,000 fighters.

Its leaders have also stepped up a recruitment drive “to establish a network of sleeper cells to further enhance their capabilities, as well as their ability to conduct attacks outside Afghan territory.”

According to the Jamestown Foundation, a US-based think-tank, Azam hails from Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province which borders Pakistan and is considered an IS-K stronghold.

He is described as a poet and writer whose work often appeared on social media platforms such as Facebook before joining IS-K in 2015.