mahipalrathore

mahipalrathore
mahipalrathore

mahipalrathore

Dr. Mahipal Singh Rathore

MAHIPAL
• On 26th August 2021, two deadly
suicide bomb attacks killed 85
people (so far), at Kabul airport.

A branch of the Islamic State –

ISIS-K has claimed responsibility.

The Taliban has distanced itself

from the attacks – also pledged
support to the United States to
help act against the ISIS attackers.
 Who are ISIS-K?
• ISIS-Khorasan is a branch of the ISIS – the terror group that
first emerged in Syria and Iraq.

• ISIS-K members include veteran jihadists from Syria and

other foreign terrorist fighters.

• The group usually targets minorities and infrastructure, in

order to highlight the Afghan government’s inability to
provide security from their attacks.
A.k.a. ISKP (Islamic State Khorasan Province).
Khorasan is a reference to an historical region under an ancient caliphate
that once included parts of Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Turkmenistan.
2014 – The ISKP or ISIS-K came into
existence in in Pakistan.

During this period the Pakistan

Army, under General Raheel Sharif,
carried out operations in the
Waziristan area against the Tehreek
e Taleban.

A group of disgruntled Taliban

fighters broke away from the TTP in
2014, rebelling against the
leadership of Mullah Fazlullah, or
Mullah Radio.
• The rebels led by Omar Khalid Khorasani accused TTP
of selling out to the “killers of the mujahideen” by
entering into talks with the Pakistan Army.

They professed allegiance to the IS.

• Several attacks in Pakistan were claimed or attributed

to this group, which called itself Jamat ul Ahrar.

** Omar Khalid Khorasani (the leader) was executed by

the Taliban on 16th August 2021, after Taliban took over
Kabul (Khorasani was in a jail in Kabul).
They joined forces with other Pakistani terror groups such as:
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al-Alami,
Lashkar-e-Islam.

Also allied to foreign Islamic radical groups such as:

the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU),
the Uighurs (East Turkestan Islamic Movement – China’s arch
enemy), and
rebels from the Afghan Taliban.
ISIS-K has built up a
presence in eastern
Afghanistan in recent years,
especially in the provinces
of Nangahar and Kunar.
• At its strongest in 2016, the ISKP had between 2,500- 8500
fighters.

• Their numbers dropped to about 2,000 to 4,000 fighters by

2019.

Why did the drop come?

2018 – Embattled and bereaved of several of its commanders and cadres, the
ISKP split after a Pakistani Pashtun, Sheikh Aslam Farooqi, who had once been
with the Lashkar-e-Toiba, and fought alongside Baghdadi cadres in Syria, took
over the leadership.

For a group that was fighting both the Taliban and Pakistan his loyalties came
under suspicion, with foreign cadres convinced he was being directed by the
Pakistani security forces.

**Note that Taliban and Pakistan security agencies are

allies (off the records), and ISIS-K was born because
Pakistani security forces were targeting them
(hence against Pakistan + Taliban).
• The ISKP had by then stopped attacks on Pakistani soil.

• The Central Asian fighters broke away and their faction

appointed its own leader.

• Indian intelligence agencies believe ISKP has several LeT

fighters among its cadres.
2019 and 2020 – Massive attacks attributed to or claimed by IS,
shook Afghan cities.

April 2020 – There was a deadly attack on a gurdwara in Kabul,

followed by a suicide bombing in the maternity ward of a
Kabul hospital.

There were other attacks in Kabul – at the University, a clinic

of the Medecins Sans Frontiers, the Jalalabad prison, a
funeral procession of a police officer in Nangarhar.
• Farooqui was arrested by the National Directorate of Security
(intelligence agency of the fallen Afghan government) after the
Kabul gurdwara bombing, and along with a Kashmiri militant
Aijaz Ahangar.

• Indian intelligence officials and the deposed Afghan

government alleged that the ISKP was a creation of Pakistan,
planned to give deniability for attacks that would otherwise be
attributed to the Taliban or Haqqani network.
• Pakistan in turn has alleged that the ISKP is an Afghan-Indian
creation.

• According to reports, at its peak the ISKP managed to attract over a

100 people from Kerala.

• The lone gunman who carried out the Kabul gurdwara attack that
killed 25 people was a Keralite, according to Indian intelligence
agencies.
 Turf wars between ISIS-K and Taliban
20th August 2021 – The Islamic State’s weekly paper al Nabha
said in an editorial (on the Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan) that
the Taliban is a “Mullah Bradley” project – a United States proxy.

• The editorial criticised the “new Taliban” for wearing a “guise of

Islam” to undermine the IS in the Af-Pak region, and questioned
if it would implement Sharia in Afghanistan.

• The editorial also said it was preparing for a new phase of jihad.
• In the last few weeks, as the Taliban intensified their military
operations to take over Afghanistan and US troops left, the ISKP
had kept a low profile.

8th June 2021 – The last attack claimed by it was in Baglan, where
gunmen killed 10 people who worked for the British charity called
Halo, involved in mine clearing operations.

• Most of the victims belonged to the Hazara Shia community.

2018 and 2019 – The ISKP
was engaged in fierce
battles to retain its
strongholds, especially in
the regions of Kunar and
Naganhar.

**Old map from 2020 – this does

not represent current territorial
controls.
 The attacks now
• After taking over Kabul, the Taliban had promised to allow
US-led evacuations to continue smoothly in Afghanistan.

• Claimed they would not support any terror activities

against the US or any other nation using their soil.

• Right now, a terror attack to tempt America back into

Afghanistan, is a threat to the interests of the Taliban – they
want to establish their caliphate under Sharia law in
Afghanistan (which is possible only with zero US presence
there).
After the Kabul airport attacks, the Central Command of the US
military is collaborating with the Taliban (now the de facto rulers
of Afghanistan) to counter the ISIS-K threat.

**Note how fast times change – till only 2 months ago, the US
forces were bombing the Taliban.
MAHIPAL