The United States has started an investigation of the role of Pakistanis in the Islamic State movement (ISIS) in Syria.
The Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have shared a list of people who are in their custody for fighting for the Islamic State, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). It consists of the names of 29 Pakistanis among others, according to a Hindustan Times report.
The list includes four Pakistanis who had acquired citizenship of another country such as Turkey and Sudan, said the report citing counter-terror officials in Delhi and Washington. Out of the 29 captured ISIS fighters, nine are women, it said.
Now the American security forces are interrogating these Pakistani nationals, said the report.
In the probe, the forces are trying to take out details from them including who sent them to fight for IS in Syria and their past affiliations with terrorist groups like the Al-Qaida or any other pan-Islamic group based in Pakistan, a counter-terror official reportedly said.
This has brought additional trouble for Pakistan while it is making efforts to exit out of the FATF Grey List. The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) put Pakistan on the grey list in June 2018 and asked Islamabad to implement a plan of action by the end of 2019, but the deadline was extended later due to COVID-19 pandemic.
Also, it gives weight to the Indian claim that Islamabad is the epicentre of terrorism. On August 24, India hit out at Pakistan for its litany of lies at the United Nations after Islamabad's UN envoy claimed to have given a statement in a Security Council meeting not open to non-Council members and said that the biggest sponsor of cross-border terrorism against it now tries to “masquerade" itself as a victim of terror.
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