Achi news desk-
The self-styled Islamic State – Khorasan (IS-K) is one of the most bloodthirsty and fanatical religious-based terrorist groups in the world today. The very recent suicide bombings in the Iranian city of Kerman have proven once again that this group of fundamentalist fanatics may be weakened but they are definitely not out of the game of terrorism and are still capable of causing death and destruction in many part of the world to prove its presence and global reach.
This is not the first time the IS-K has struck in Iran but it is the deadliest attack to date, where over 100 people lost their lives and hundreds more suffered serious injuries. The attack was launched when people had gathered to observe the anniversary of the death of the assassinated Iranian general Qassem Soleimani. The group also attacked Iran’s Parliament and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini in 2017.
All Muslim countries including Pakistan should exercise extreme vigilance to ensure that this bloody extremist group is not allowed to sink its tentacles into Muslim societies to promote its own political agenda in the name of the religion of Islam. Iran seems to be the common target of Israel and the IS-K. Syria and Iraq, too, have suffered the consequences of the bloody attack of the IS-K, but Da’esh as it is also called, has never shown any sympathy for the struggles of the Palestinian people or the recent gore enacted in the Gaza Strip. In fact, some Iranian commentators have even called the IS a tool of Israeli intelligence. It has been proven time and time again that all Muslim states including Pakistan and Afghanistan are targets of IS and that they have indigenous cells of the organization in all major cites of the country.
The Islamic State group, or Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), known by its Arabic acronym Da’esh, is an extremist Salafi terrorist group founded in 2004 by Abu. Qamar Al-Baghdadi and was aligned with Al Qaeda during the insurgency in Iraq. This group attracted global attention and prominence by 2014 when its fanatical fighters conquered a wide range of territories in north-west Iraq and eastern Syria, and managed to control a population of over 12 million people, where it imposed its strict interpretation of Sharia law. He had more than 30,000 fighters under his command. By the year 2019, due to intense battles with Iraqi, Kurdish and US forces, the group lost control of most of its territories.
But now it seems like the rebirth of this deadly group as it starts operations from its hideouts and tries to regain its former power in the Islamic countries.
The Islamic State has changed tactics since its defeat in Iraq. Once occupied in the city of Raqqa in Syria and the city of Mosul in Iraq at its height, the group has now secretly taken refuge in the ruins of these cities. Its fighters are scattered in autonomous cells, its leadership is mysterious and its overall size is difficult to measure, although the United Nations estimates that it is 10,000 fighters in its area. The movement went underground and formed sleeper cells that launch hit-and-run attacks, according to an Iraqi government security adviser who is part of a high-level security unit that monitors Islamic State activities in Iraq and neighboring lands. All the key foreign fighters fled Iraq for countries such as Afghanistan, Syria and Pakistan. Most have joined the Khorasan branch of the Islamic State which is active along Iran’s borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan.
IS-K expanded into the Khorasan Region in 2015 and this region covers parts of Iran, Central Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Despite the initial skepticism about the group’s existence and capabilities from analysts and government. Pakistani IS-K operatives have been responsible for over 100 attacks against civilians in Pakistan and Afghanistan as well as over 250 armed conflicts with US, Afghan and Pakistani security forces since 2017.
It was in 2014 that the Pakistani militant Hafiz Saeed Khan was chosen to lead the IS-K in Pakistan. Saeed, a seasoned veteran of the TTP brought with him many other fanatics including Sheikh Maqbool and some district chiefs of the TTP who pledged allegiance to Baghdadi and became members of the first Khorasan Shura or central leadership council. Hafiz Saeed Khan was killed by a US drone attack in Afghanistan in 2016 and after him three other leaders of IS-K have been eliminated by US airstrikes. All these leaders had meaningful experience of the local militant movements in Afghanistan and Pakistan even before joining IS-K.
The IS-K agenda includes global objectives. In 2015 in a video series distributed globally they stated “There is no doubt that Allah the Almighty blessed us with Jihad in the land of Khorasan a long time ago, and it was by the grace of Allah that we fought any unbeliever who entered . the country of Khorasan. All this is for the establishment of Sharia.”
He went on to say:
“Know that the Islamic State is not limited to a particular country. These young men will fight against all unbelievers whether in the west, east, south or north. As the core leadership of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, IS-K seeks to establish a caliphate beginning in south and central Asia, governed by Sharia, which will expand as Muslims from across the region and the world join IS-K disregards international borders and envisions territory that transcends nation-states such as Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
Since its inception, IS-K has repeatedly rejected demands from the international community’s idea of what it means to behave as a sovereign entity. If the Islamic State is about state building, its project is defined by conquest, brutality, and a demand for religious obedience among the population it controls, all wrapped up in a strange form. of managerial acumen. If a future version of the Islamic State seeks recognition as a sovereign State, that entity could continue to control many aspects of public and private life—certainly, there is nothing in international law that prohibits the maintenance of law Sharia. But ethnic cleansing, torture, sexual slavery, violent persecution of religious minorities, and the encouragement or rhetorical support that goes with it are antithetical to a full concept of sovereignty. Pakistan is now in the crossfire of the IS-K and there are plenty of local sympathizers and encouragers safely exposed in some religious institutions across the country, as well as in urban centers.
The spread of IS-K’s tentacles through central and south Asia is a serious security threat, and Pakistan is perhaps most vulnerable due to its many economic, political and security challenges.
