Afghanistan to hand over surrendered ISIS fighters to India under recently signed treaty

Thanks to the recently ratified extradition treaty, Afghanistan is likely to hand over around 10 Indians ISIS fighters who surrendered before the Afghan security forces over the past few days. According to media reports, the surrendered fighters of Islamic State will be handed over to India after due processes. 

The purported move assumes significance as India and Afghanistan exchanged the instruments of ratification of their bilateral extradition treaty only last Sunday. The two countries decided to sign a bilateral extradition treaty during the visit of Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani to New Delhi on October 14, 2016. 

Extradition is the formal process of one country surrendering an individual to another for prosecution for crimes committed in the requesting country's jurisdiction. It is normally enabled by a bilateral treaty as signed by India and Afghanistan.

Reportedly, there are about 10 Indians among the 900 ISIS fighters who have surrendered before the security forces in Afghanistan ove rthe past few days. All the 10 are said to be Keralites, who left to join Islamic State in 2016. The team of 21 youths left India in batches to join the Islamic State in Khorasan Province in Afghanistan. They reportedly crossed over to Afghanistan on foot from Iran.

Afghanistan officials claimed that air strikes by Afghan and coalition forces, lack of funds and low morale have forced the Islamic State fighters, locally known as Daesh, to give up.