Pakistan has arrested Sultan Aziz Azzam, the media chief for Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), intelligence sources confirmed to Pakistan TV. Azzam, who was designated a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the United States in November 2021, was apprehended in May 2025 while attempting to cross into Pakistan. As the head of ISKP's Al Azaim media channel, analysts suggest his arrest could significantly undermine the propaganda machinery of the Islamic State affiliate. Born in 1978 in Nangarhar, Afghanistan, and a graduate of the University of Nangarhar, Azzam joined Islamic State Khorasan Provincein 2016. The U.S. State Department had been seeking his arrest since his 2021 designation. The ISKP emerged in Afghanistan shortly after the Islamic State's core fighters moved across Syria and Iraq in 2014. The group's name refers to Khorasan, a historical region spanning parts of Afghanistan, Iran, and Central Asia. The arrest occurs amid heightened regional friction. While the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) are distinct from the Afghan Taliban, the TTP has been emboldened since the Afghan Taliban's return to power in Kabul in 2021. Islamabad has frequently called on Kabul to restrain TTP militants, many of whom reside in Afghanistan. Relations between the two nations deteriorated in October 2025 following Pakistani military strikes against TTP hideouts inside Afghanistan. Pakistan stated the strikes targeted insurgents, while Afghanistan maintained the casualties were civilians and responded by striking Pakistani military posts. Although a ceasefire was brokered in Doha in October, subsequent talks in Istanbul ended without resolution.
