ISLAMABAD: A report published by USIP underlines the relations between terrorists operating in Pakistan and the Afghan National Directorate of Security.
The USIP report quotes from a July 2016 report by the Afghanistan Analysts Network, which claims that Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, “the National Directorate of Security, has supported the militant organisation Lashkar-i-Islam and elements of TTP since 2014 “with the aim of playing these militants against Pakistan in retaliation for Pakistan’s long-time support of the Afghan Taliban.” Fighters from both groups later joined ISK.
The USIP report, however, says that “a regionally supported political settlement with the Taliban” is the best way of defeating the IS in the Pak-Afghan region.
The Congressional Research Service (CRS), which provides analytical reports to US lawmakers, argues that US military strikes have also been very effective in reducing ISK’s influence in the region.
USIP suggests “establishing border security” is “key to any serious attempt at rooting out ISK” but notes that both Afghanistan and Pakistan “appear willing to sacrifice long-term regional security to enable their own — ultimately uncontrollable — militant proxies to create insecurity for their neighbour across the Durand Line”.
The report warns that “as long as these short-sighted tactics are not reversed, international forces, and the international community more broadly, risk getting drawn into a fight with the IS that is essentially the same mix of territorial, regional-geopolitical, and hyper-local conflicts that have characterised Afghanistan-Pakistan relations for decades”.