Turkish media have reported that a Turkish national was apprehended by Pakistani forces in the region along the Line with Afghanistan and subsequently handed over to Turkish security agencies.
According to sources familiar with the case, the arrested individual has been identified as Özgür Alton, who was one of the key figures within the IS-K faction.
Sources informed Al-Mirsaad that Alton arrived in Afghanistan in 2018 and joined the IS-K. He was arrested a year later and remained in prison until the fall of Kabul, but managed to escape when the prisons were breached.
After his release from prison in 2021, he resumed his activities and fled to Balochistan in 2023 following intensified operations by the IEA against ISIS leadership and members. Özgür Alton was widely known among the ISIS ranks as Abu Yasir al-Turki.
A security source informed Al-Mirsaad that Alton played a significant role in Balochistan in recruiting foreign nationals—particularly from Turkey and Azerbaijan—into IS-K’s ranks, as well as in facilitating financial support for the group.
His efforts led to the recruitment of several Azerbaijani nationals, some of whom were arrested in Azerbaijan, while others were detained in Balochistan and later extradited to their home country.
In addition, multiple foreign militants brought into Balochistan through Alton’s network were killed in operations in Mastung, which targeted IS-K strongholds and resulted in the deaths of nearly 30 ISIS militants.
Notably, the arrests of Abu Yasir al-Turki, alongside the earlier capture of Sharifullah and other ISIS operatives in Balochistan, and the attacks on their known centers in Mastung, strongly suggest that the operational center of ISIS-K has shifted to Balochistan, from where the group now coordinates and carries out its operations.
