Turkish intelligence has captured a senior operative of the Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K) group during a covert operation along the Pak-Afghan border, Turkish officials said on Monday, describing the arrest as a major blow to the militant network’s transnational operations.
The suspect, Mehmet Goren, a Turkish national, was apprehended following days of intelligence-led surveillance in a remote border area before being flown to Türkiye for interrogation, according to Turkish state media. Officials said the operation disrupted planned suicide attacks targeting civilians in Pakistan, Türkiye and parts of Europe.
Goren is believed to have travelled from Türkiye to IS-K training camps in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region, where he later rose to a senior operational role. Turkish media reported that he was involved in planning suicide bombings and coordinating recruitment efforts, operating within IS-K’s foreign fighter network.
Security sources said Goren had previously survived Pakistani air strikes on militant hideouts and had remained under the radar while moving between safe locations in the border belt. His eventual capture followed what officials described as “patient and precise intelligence work”.
Pakistan’s security forces have also been on high alert and have intensified operations against IS affiliates. A senior Pakistani intelligence official said last week that Islamabad detained a leader of an IS offshoot in an operation flagged by a United Nations monitoring team. This suggests Pakistani and Turkish agencies are independently targeting overlapping extremist networks operating in the region.
IS-K has emerged as one of the deadliest militant groups in South and Central Asia, carrying out attacks in Pakistan and plotting operations beyond the region.
The group claimed responsibility for the March 2024 Moscow concert hall attack that killed more than 140 people and has carried out multiple assaults in Pakistan since 2021.
Islamic State cells have also struck inside Turkey, including the 2017 nightclub shooting in Istanbul that killed 39 people.
Turkish media reported that the arrest yielded critical intelligence on IS-K recruitment pipelines and operational planning, potentially aiding future counter-terror efforts. Ankara has stepped up intelligence-driven operations against IS-K in recent years, often tracking militants across borders.
In an earlier case, Özgür Altun, also known as Abu Yasir al-Turki, was arrested and jailed for facilitating the movement of fighters from Türkiye to militant camps in Afghanistan.
The arrest comes amid deepening Pakistan-Turkey defence ties. Türkiye has officially handed over the second of four advanced MILGEM-class corvettes to Pakistan, with President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an describing bilateral ties as a “timeless brotherhood.”
Meanwhile, Turkish officials have given few details, saying only that Goren is in custody and will face terrorism charges.