ISLAMABAD – There is a serious threat of spillover of Daesh’s regionalaffiliate, the Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISKP), into Pakistan fromeastern Afghanistan. The ISKP first appeared in Afghanistan in 2014 but nowboasts thousands of terrorists. For Pakistan and other regional countrieslike Iran and Russia, Daesh is a greater threat than the Afghan Talibanbecause the former is ideologically and fundamentally expansionist innature while the latter has never expressed its desire to operate in orinfluence other countries.link#_>
Reports have appeared that mysterious and sinister character Abu Bakaral-Baghdadi, after the destruction of Iraq and Syria, has been relocated toAfghanistan’s eastern provinces. Baghdadi, whose Iraqi identity has neverbeen confirmed and his family background is also unknown, is regarded asthe top agent of anti-Islam forces to harm the interests of Muslimcountries through violence of all sorts and terrorism.
Former Afghan president Karzai has admitted to the presence and nurturingof the deadly terrorist group in his country. However, Commander of U.S.forces in Afghanistan General John Nicholson says there could 1,500 Daeshfighters in Afghanistan operating in parts of the eastern Afghan provincesof Nangarhar and Kunar and in the northern Jowzjan province. “We have cuttheir numbers in half over the last two years. We have killed their ‘amirs'(chiefs), we have reduced their territory, again, we have driven theirfighters out of parts of the country,” Nicholson claimed as per reports. Itseems the Americans and Afghan government are underestimating the terroristgroup’s strength.
While Daesh has been attacking and killing the Afghan Taliban, someanalysts have pointed out that they are also threatening the Central AsianStates and Russia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov declared thatthousands of Daesh or IS terrorists are present in northern and easternAfghan regions and are being joined by militants fleeing Syria and Iraq.
According to experts, many TTP elements have joined Daesh, which hasmysterious sources of funding and offers lucrative terrorist ideology andcareers. Daesh has carried out many attacks in KP and Balochistan provinceswhile in Sindh it carried out an attack on the Sehwan shrine in 2017, whichkilled 90 people and injured more than 300. However, analysts say thatthere is no organised presence of the terrorist group in the country thoughthere may be some facilitators and recruiters present.
The new National Internal Security Policy (NISP) recently approved by thelast federal cabinet stated: “The emergence of Daesh in close proximity toPakistan has raised new internal security challenges. The potential forspill over in Pakistan with the support and collaboration of TTP and itsoffshoots is not a possibility to be ignored. This situation has beencompounded by the return of battle-hardened militants from Syria and Iraq.”
Pakistan has lost more than 70,000 people and suffered a loss of $123billion over the past 15 years, revealed the new policy. A number of stepshave been taken to choke terror financing, establishing a National TaskForce on combating financing of terrorism, a coordinating body of over 20federal and provincial organizations. Some 66 organisations were proscribedwith 7,966 individuals placed under watch as of March 2018. Over 90 percentgeo-mapping of religious seminaries (madaris) has been completed across thecountry while efforts to introduce wide-ranging madaris reforms areunderway, it added.
In Pakistan, Muftis and leading Ulema have put their full trust in thegovernment and the country’s armed forces by issuing a consensus Fatwa“Paigham-e-Pakistan” to refute the extremist ideologies and terroristoutfits like Daesh. According to this Fatwa, the state and the governmentare Islamic in accordance with Shariah and no individual or a group canproclaim its rule and Jihad in the country. Therefore, the general massesshould reject the deception of Baghdadi and Daesh and they should offerfull support to security forces to eliminate Daesh from Pakistan.
If the Daesh threat is not timely and fully addressed in Afghanistan, itsaffiliate could pose direct threats to Pakistan, Russia, and other regionalcountries in times to come. This is the inexorable and logical conclusionof regional analysts and security experts.
By: Waqar Ahmed