The brother of Jahan Shah Safi, a former Afghan security officer arrested in the United States on charges of assisting ISIS, has strongly rejected the allegations, calling them baseless.

Speaking to Afghanistan International, Ziaulhaq Safi said his brother not only had no ties to ISIS but had actively fought against the group while serving in Afghanistan’s security forces. He said the family is working to clear their name after the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Safi’s arrest on Wednesday. Safi is the third Afghan national detained in the US on terrorism-related accusations.

Ziaulhaq Safi said his brother had fought ISIS terrorists during operations in Kunar, Nangarhar and Laghman provinces adding that he had been wounded twice in clashes with the group. He said the accusation that their father had been linked to ISIS, and that Jahan Shah had financially supported him, was “completely untrue,” noting that their father served as governor of Kunar in the early years of the former Afghan republic, later fell ill and died in February 2022.

He said: “We live here, and my brother has his own life in the United States,” insisting that his brother had no connection to ISIS or its affiliates.

According to his brother, Jahan Shah served in the National Directorate of Security (NDS) in Kunar, Laghman and Nangarhar and was the NDS chief for Kunar at the time Afghanistan’s previous government collapsed.

He urged US authorities to reassess the allegations carefully.

Rahmatullah Nabil, former NDS director, and General Sami Sadat, leader of the Afghanistan United Front, also criticised the DHS accusations. They described Safi as one of the most active and effective officers in Afghanistan’s former intelligence service and confirmed that he had been an anti-ISIS operative.