Sanaullah Ghafari: The Path from Kabul University Student to ISIS-K Leadership


This report was written by Nilofar Langar for Independent Persian. The original version of this report was published in Farsi/Dari. 

 

 After the deadly attack by ISIS-K on the Crocus concert hall in Moscow  on March 2024, which led to the death of over 140 people and the injury of dozens, the name of the young leader of this group once again made headlines. However, there has always been contradictory and often misleading information in the media regarding the true identity of this man behind ISIS-K's deadly attacks. Now, Independent Persian, through interviews with former acquaintances and some intelligence sources who have followed his case, has obtained new details about his private life and path to becoming the leader of the notorious ISIS-K terror network. 

Sanaullah Ghafari, known as Shahab al-Muhajir, has sometimes been mentioned as a member of the Haqqani network. In some cases, a fake ID card showing him as a security guard for the former vice president of Afghanistan has been circulated, and recently there have been rumors in international media about his membership in the former Afghan army. But who is Sanaullah Ghafari really, where is he from, and how did he become the leader of ISIS-K?


Sanaullah Ghafari: The Path from Kabul University Student to ISIS-K Leadership
Combined photos of Sanaullah Ghafari and ISIS fighters in Syria - Courtesy: rewardsforjustice.net


ISIS-K is the only active operational branch of this group in Central Asia, with its base in Afghanistan. Over the past year, it has planned and executed several deadly attacks outside Afghan soil. The leadership of this branch, which is now becoming a serious threat to regional security, is held by a young man named Sanaullah Ghafari, originally from Mir Bacha Kot district in Kabul.

 

Sources from Sanaullah Ghafari’s extended family told Independent Persian about his ethnic background and the location of his family. He is the son of Abdul Jabbar, a former member of the Hezb-e-Islami led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, and originally from the Kharoti tribe of the Pashtun ethnicity. His family, deeply religious and following the Hanafi school, lives in the Kharoti village between the districts of Mir Bacha Kot and Shakardara in Kabul.

 

According to these sources, although his family was highly religious, they were not inclined towards Salafism. However, during his time as a student at Kabul University between 2012 and 2014, Sanaullah Ghafari was drawn to Salafi ideologies and joined terrorist groups.

 

Recently, Reuters reported, citing Taliban sources, that Sanaullah Ghafari is of Tajik descent and was a member of the former Afghan national army. However, credible sources from Afghanistan's former National Directorate of Security (NDS) strongly reject this claim.

 

A senior NDS officer who personally followed Sanaullah Ghafari's case during his tenure told Independent Persian that Ghafari was never part of Afghanistan's security forces. He was recruited by Salafi proselytizing groups during his time at Kabul University. Due to his influence in religious preaching among students, the Haqqani network summoned him to Waziristan, Pakistan.


 

The source added, "Ghafari received military training under the supervision of the Haqqani network in Waziristan, and because of his familiarity with computer programs, he worked on designing, photography, and editing photos and videos for the Haqqani network." However, it wasn’t long before he became responsible for planning terrorist attacks for the Haqqani network, and while remaining anonymous and away from the limelight, he became a significant force for the network.

 

The Name Game and the Transformation from Haqqani Network Member to ISIS Leader

 

There has been conflicting information in the media about how Sanaullah Ghafari joined ISIS. Some have claimed that he acted as a liaison between the Haqqani network and ISIS, while others suggested that Sirajuddin Haqqani forced him to join ISIS, though there is no conclusive evidence to support these claims.

 

The senior NDS officer revealed the secret behind Sanaullah Ghafari’s joining ISIS: “One of his usual tricks was playing with different names in different situations. Even when he worked for the Haqqani network, he never introduced himself with the same name to two individuals or two groups during the planning and execution of attacks. He would connect with operational networks under numerous different names.”

 

According to the officer, around 2014, when ISIS-K emerged in Afghanistan, Ghafari, with the help of his extensive connections with terrorist networks and using various aliases, got closer to ISIS and eventually shifted from the Haqqani network to ISIS.

 

This senior NDS officer provided an example from his mission to prove this claim, stating, “After ISIS attacks in Afghanistan intensified, whenever we detained individuals involved in the attacks, we asked them about their commander’s identity, and they would give different names. But when we asked them to describe their leader’s appearance, they all described the same person. By matching the portraits based on their descriptions, we realized that all the names referred to the same person—Sanaullah Ghafari.”

 

The “Anonymity Tactic,” the ISIS-K Leader’s Key to Escaping Security Traps

 

In February 2022, the U.S. announced a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the identification or capture of the ISIS-K leader.

 

There are a few photos of Sanaullah Ghafari that the U.S. State Department has published, identifying him as the leader of ISIS-K and stating his age as 29. However, informed sources within Afghanistan’s former intelligence services told Independent Persian that the photo of ISIS-K’s leader is from about 10 years ago, and he was approximately 24 years old around 2014-2015, meaning he is now around 34 to 35 years old.

 

Additionally, a former classmate of Sanaullah Ghafari at Kabul University told Independent Persian that Ghafari was at least 22 years old when they studied together about 10 years ago. He also corrected the media’s reports on Ghafari’s field of study, stating that they were classmates in the Faculty of Economics at Kabul University. Some media outlets have mistakenly reported that Ghafari studied at the Polytechnic Engineering University or the Faculty of Islamic Studies at Kabul University.

 

Meanwhile, security sources revealed details about the ISIS-K leader's security methods. The senior NDS officer told Independent Persian that Ghafari tries to operate completely anonymously, and thus, “he never carries a mobile phone, and no special protection team is seen around him.”

 

Nevertheless, this officer noted that Ghafari has survived several assassination attempts by Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security. The officer said, “In 2018, the NDS conducted two operations to arrest or eliminate Sanaullah Ghafari in the village of Kochkin, Shakardara district, Kabul, but he escaped both times.”

 

The officer added, “The ISIS-K leader only has one special assistant named Salahuddin, who appears to have been a classmate of his at university. Salahuddin now acts as ISIS-K’s operational deputy and is always by Ghafari’s side.”

 

It is also said that Ghafari has traveled to Pakistan on several occasions. However, security sources told Independent Persian that aside from his training period in North Waziristan under the Haqqani network’s supervision, Ghafari has spent all his time in Afghanistan and currently resides within the country.

 

The Deep Infiltration of ISIS within the Taliban

 

For the past two years and seven months since taking power in Afghanistan, the Taliban have consistently claimed that they have crushed ISIS-K in Afghanistan and that the group no longer poses a threat. Most recently, Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s spokesperson, told Afghanistan’s national radio and television (under Taliban control) that ISIS-K has lost its operational capabilities in Afghanistan.

 

However, intelligence from Afghanistan’s former government contradicts this claim. These sources say that in Taliban operations supposedly aimed at destroying ISIS-K hideouts, civilians are often targeted, while ISIS members are not only present but also widely infiltrated within the Taliban ranks.

 

As an example, the source pointed to the killing of Abdul Rahim Haqqani, the mastermind of the Haqqani network, in a suicide attack in Kabul, saying, “Abdul Rahim Haqqani was killed by a former Haqqani network member named Haji Bashir, who joined Salafi groups and was recruited by ISIS while in Kabul prison.” The source added, “Haji Bashir hired Haqqani’s driver to bring the suicide bomber into the religious school compound where Abdul Rahim Haqqani was responsible.”

 

According to security sources, a large number of Taliban members who had been in Afghan prisons in recent years were influenced by Salafi ideologies and, after being released, joined ISIS.

 

This example shows that contrary to the Taliban’s claims, ISIS-K has deeply infiltrated the Taliban’s various layers. The recent deadly attacks carried out by ISIS-K in Iran, Pakistan, and Russia have been attractive and encouraging for some mid-level Taliban members.

 

Some reports, including those from the UN Security Council, suggest that ISIS-K has between 4,000 and 6,000 fighters (including their families) in Afghanistan. Some of these individuals were former Taliban members, while others traveled to Afghanistan via Turkey and Iran and joined ISIS-K. Intelligence reports indicate that some members of ISIS’s main branch, who fled Iraq and Syria to Turkey, also serve as ISIS reserves and occasionally enter Iran through illegal means and from there into Afghanistan.

 

Is it Possible to Contain the Growing ISIS Threat in Afghanistan?

 

After the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan, the U.S. claimed it would continue counterterrorism efforts in the country through aerial surveillance. However, the key issue is that the U.S. relies on the Taliban as the on-ground intelligence force to identify and target threats.

 

Sources within Afghanistan’s former intelligence services told Independent Persian that the Taliban currently lack the capacity and capability to gather the necessary intelligence for the U.S. Air Force. As long as there is no necessary ground force, it is unlikely that aerial operations can target specific groups. Therefore, it seems that, at present, ISIS faces no serious aerial threat in Afghanistan, allowing the group to freely plan and execute complex and deadly attacks both within and outside Afghanistan.



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