Is ISKP preparing the ground for a revival of ISIS 2.0?

Opinion Article – October 23, 2021

Ever since the Afghan Taliban came to power on August 15, 2021, a militant group Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP) presuming to be aligned with Iraq-based ISIS, has increased its activities reminding the region of horror and massacres that took place in the Middle East during 2013-17.

Within a span of 10 weeks, the ISKP has launched at least six deadly attacks in Afghanistan that led to the killing of about 500 people and injuring more than a thousand.

The sudden but well-planned shoot of ISKP terrorism has not only surprised the international observers but also its sponsors and hosts.

What is surprising for Afghans is that ISIS increased its attack by manyfold at a time when all foreign troops have pulled out and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is in power. The second surprising element is the fact that ISKP, which calls itself ‘defenders of Islam’, has been targeting mosques and has killed hundreds of Muslims during prayers.

The third action noted by observers is that ISKP is not only aiming to undermine the authority of the Afghan Taliban but also carefully instigating chaos and general disorder in the country. Sources inside Afghanistan also claim that the ISKP network is determined to target several key Taliban leaders and even tried to kill at least three top leaders including Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is still on the U.S. sanctions list. According to internal sources, moderate Taliban leader and spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid himself survived an attack when he went to the Kabul mosque to attend prayers for his deceased mother.

On October 14, 2021, Radio Free Europe/Gandhara claimed that an IED blast had killed a Taliban district police chief in Asadabad, Kunar province, which was considered safe haven for ISKP.

A close observation of ISKP’s settlement and activities reveals that the group has systematically spread to at least five Afghan provinces all bordering China, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan.

The recent terror acts of ISKP have brought to the fore a simmering debate in Pakistan and Central Asian capitals about how much more evidence must be amassed before the region should collectively act to avoid a Syria-Iraq-like situation. Afghanistan’s immediate neighbors might argue that the onus is on the Afghan Taliban to defeat ISIS but it is clear to the Taliban that it cannot confront the closely netted cells of ISKP working in collaboration with militants from neighboring states. The presence of disgruntled ethnic populations and/or militants opposed to their own regimes makes the work of ISKP much easier. But the way ISKP’s hidden leaders and operators are spending money and resources to revive the ground of ‘ISIS version 2.0’ is astonishing for many neighboring observers.

Insiders have warned that ISKP-led recent attacks are only the tip of an iceberg, which may unfold with more surprising and brutal acts carried out by ISIS leaders in Iraq.

Taliban security officials have confirmed in recent weeks that the ISKP network had repeatedly tried to target foreign diplomats and nationals. Dozens of ISKP would-be attackers were apprehended during September while planning attacks against Russia, China, and Pakistan.

On October 4, 2021, Russian news agency TASS quoted an embassy spokesperson as saying that five militants of the Islamic State terrorist group have been neutralized by the Taliban forces in a Kabul district where the Russian embassy is located.

A close in-depth study of ISKP’s formation in Afghanistan reveals that during 2017-18 when ISIS was losing ground in Syria and Iraq, a well-planned operation was underway to facilitate some Central Asian terrorists to settle in Afghanistan.

By 2018 the self-style ISIS men had already hired hundreds of Afghans and Pakistani militants who feared army actions for their past crimes. Later in 2019, a few dozens of Central Asians including Uyghurs, Uzbeks, Tajiks also joined the ISKP in ungoverned areas of Afghanistan.

The question that who provided them with financial and logistic support for resettling in Afghanistan remains unanswered, but Afghan-based foreign diplomats had repeatedly urged the then Afghan government to curb the spread of ISIS.

Although the U.S. and NATO members denied any role in such operations, in 2019, Al Jazeera news network quoted Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai claiming that the “U.S. is colluding with Daesh (ISIS) in Afghanistan”, and allowing the group to flourish in the war-torn country. Karzai said, “In my view, under the full [U.S.] presence, surveillance, military, political, intelligence, Daesh has emerged. And for two years, the Afghan people came, cried loud about their suffering, of violations. Nothing was done”.

There is no doubt that the post-9/11 Afghan regimes followed a pattern of deceit and unwillingness to disarm the thousands of freelance terrorists who became the fuel for internal strife in Afghanistan. Former Afghan intelligence officials confirm that some high up managed to penetrate in Taliban network while others were used as bargaining chips to neutralize anti-regime forces.

On April 9, 2020, when Pakistan demanded handing over of the suspected leader of a Daesh-linked group, who was arrested by Afghan security forces, the then Afghan government refused to cooperate. The move was hailed and taken by ISKP leaders as a ‘green signal’ to expand their operations in the country.

Afghan intelligence agency National Directorate of Security (NDS) had claimed the arrest of the ISKP leader Abdullah Orakzai, an anti-Pakistan militant, also known as Aslam Farooqi, on April 6, in Kabul. The same group had claimed responsibility for a deadly terrorist attack on a Sikh worship place in Kabul, which killed 25 people. Aslam Farooqi was involved in anti-Pakistan activities in Afghanistan, and Pakistan demanded handing him over for further investigations.

On April 27, 2021, Financial Times reported that the June report of the UN’s sanctions monitoring team found that a significant part of the al-Qaeda leadership is based along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and that the ISIS-K, or Daesh, “remains active and dangerous”. Other groups include the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The latter is of greatest concern to Islamabad after its leaders declared “war against Pakistan’s security forces” and said it would seize control of the border regions to “make them independent”.

The other side of the picture shows that Central Asian countries are equally concerned over the reemergence of terrorist networks, while Russia fears a revival of new unrest in the North Caucasian region. On February 17, 2021, it was reported that Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) had arrested 19 members of a terrorist group called Takfir wal-Hijra aiming to carry out terror acts.

Meanwhile, Uzbek officials are increasingly worried about reports that IMU and Islami Jihad group had been reorganizing in Afghanistan. Experts in Moscow are also closely observing the emerging challenges from Afghanistan, and Russia has intensified efforts to form a joint action plan with Central Asian nations to stave off terrorism threats.

On October 15, 2021, the twenty-first issue of the pro-ISIS web magazine “Voice of Hind” contained an article condemning the Taliban, stating that the group became puppets of the West and Iran. The article also lauded the recent ISIS attacks in Afghanistan. The publication also condemned separatist groups in Kashmir for not subscribing to the same religious ideology.

The ISKP affiliated and pro-ISIS groups in the region are not only waging a war against Westerners but evidently also opposed to Russia, China, Pakistan, and the Afghan Taliban. With regard to the growing threat of terrorism, anti-terrorism experts in Pakistan have warned that unless regional states sincerely cooperate with each other against reemergence of ISIS 2.0 in Afghanistan, the regional countries could face severe consequences.

Although, the UN has urged the donors to speed up efforts to stave off the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, the chaotic atmosphere in the country could certainly be exploited by ISIS and Al Qaeda, and plunge the region into disarray.

Author: Akhtar Jamal