THE most dangerous transnational terrorist group which is threatening world peace today is the IS-K or the Khorasan Chapter of the Islamic State. Besides Al-Qaida, which has lost its vitality, the only other terrorist group which has worldwide ambitions is the IS-K. Unlike most other Islamic terrorist groups like TTP and TTA besides others, who have only nationalist ambitions, IS-K believes in a worldwide Islamic state. Unlike Al-Qaeda, it also believes in holding a piece of territory from which it can establish a worldwide Islamic State. For this purpose, the IS-K is prepared to carry out militant/terrorist activities both regionally and internationally.
It was in conformity with this thinking that IS-K carried out a deadly attack on a concert hall in Moscow. The attack left around 140 people dead. According to analysts, the militants of IS-K saw Russia as involved in the persecution of Muslims. This daring attack demonstrated the destructive capacity of IS-K to carry out high intensity acts of terrorism beyond the region, where it has been operating so far. The attack has heightened the profile of IS-K as a global terrorist group that has been active for a long time in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. The suspects arrested after the attack by the Russian forces were mostly of Central Asian origin. It must be remembered that Central Asian recruits had joined the Islamic State, when they had their Khilafat in the Middle East. After the Islamic State was routed from the Middle East, most of the Central Asian volunteers joined the IS-K Chapter. In September 2022, IS-K also claimed responsibility for a deadly suicide attack on Russian Embassy in Kabul. Moscow has been, for long, concerned about increasing influence of IS-K in the Central Asian States.
The Moscow carnage by IS-K has alerted other world powers to the terrorist threat of IS-K. A senior American official told a Congressional Committee that the IS-K retains the capability and the will to attack the US and western interests abroad in as little as six months with little to no warning”. According to western counterterrorism officials, several IS-K plots to attack targets in Europe, in recent months, have been foiled.
The IS-K is an offshoot of the Middle Eastern based Islamic State or IS, the militant outfit formed in 2015. The IS-K has been involved in a series of devastating attacks in Afghanistan and Iran. The group was behind the deadly attack, earlier this year, in the Iranian town of Kerman. The attack took place during a memorial service/procession of Maj. Gen. Qasim Suleimani, an Iranian Commander, who was killed in an American drone strike in 2020. About 80 people were killed in this IS-K attack. Several other attacks in Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistani province of Baluchistan have the footprints of the group. Some Sunni militant groups in the region have also joined the IS-K.
The first indications of the transnational militant outfit the IS-K, organizing itself in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region emerged in 2014. Initial recruits for the IS-K ranks came largely from the various Pakistani Taliban groups who were driven from their hideouts in the tribal areas of Pakistan into Afghanistan, by large scale military operations by the Pakistan Army. Some low-level Taliban commanders also joined the radical outfit.
In January 2015, the militants of IS-K released a video, declaring themselves as administrators of an official Wilayat for IS in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The creation of the Shura for the Khorasan province was endorsed by the Islamic State high command. A former TTP commander Hafiz Saeed Khan was appointed as the head of the Khorasan Chapter and Mullah Abdul Rauf, a former Afghan Taliban Commander and an ex-Guantanamo Bay inmate, was named as his deputy.
Soon after its formation, IS-K became active in various provinces of Afghanistan. It attracted many defections from the Afghan Taliban. Most of these defections were due to the large financial resources of the group, rather than its rigid ideology. In many areas of Afghanistan, the Afghan Taliban and IS-K fighters also fought pitched battles to gain territorial influence.
The real surge in IS-K’s membership occurred after the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan and the Afghan Taliban’s assumption of governmental control. Estimates suggest IS-K’s strength is around 4,000 fighters, with many recruits coming from other transnational militant groups. Its alliance with the TTP has bolstered its capabilities. The spike in IS-K attacks coincided with the departure of American forces from Afghanistan, highlighted by a deadly assault on US troops at Kabul Airport in 2021, resulting in the deaths of 13 service members and numerous civilians.
According to a UN report, the counterattacks launched by the Afghan Taliban have somewhat reduced the frequency of the group’s terror attacks. However, the deadly potential of the militant/terrorist group remains intact, not only in Afghanistan but also in the whole region. The increasing strength of IS-K and other such transnational groups, along with their foreign fighters, poses a dangerous threat not only to Afghanistan but also to its neighbouring countries, especially Pakistan. The Afghan Taliban’s support for various militant organizations, including TTP, is also seen as a factor behind the resurgence of IS-K.
Although IS-K has been fighting with Afghan Taliban, it has been coexisting peacefully with TTT in the east of Afghanistan. The main reason for this is, perhaps, the fact that many fighters of TTP joined IS-K when they were expelled from tribal areas of Pakistan and driven into Afghanistan. The resurgent IS-K represents a genuine global threat. Combating this menace necessitates both regional and global strategies.
—The writer, based in Islamabad, is a former Health Minister of KP.
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