Pakistan - Our state of denial: our biggest enemy

By  Syed Kashif Ali

Disgruntled former Taliban commanders have formed the so-called Khorasan chapter, an umbrella IS group covering Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and other South Asian countries

While Pakistan’s honourable  interior minister Chaudry Nisar is busy being vigilant of tandoors (cylindrical clay ovens) and the number of rotis (loaves) being taken from there, Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS, hereinafter referred to as IS) has reached Pakistan. In October 2014, a group of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commanders pledged allegiance to IS Chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The leaders included five commanders of the TTP in Pakistan’s tribal areas, including Orakzai, Kurram, Khyber and Peshawar, as well as senior Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid. Despite the TTP leaders’ open declaration and allegiance of support to IS, Chaudhry Nisar outrightly rejected the presence of IS by saying only some terrorist groups were using the IS name, which should not be a cause of concern for anybody. Mr Nisar is not alone in this state of denial; he may find many more around him in the likes of Punjab’s former law minister, Rana Sanullah, who had consistently been denying the presence of the Punjabi Taliban until they wrought havoc upon innocents in Pakistan. Later, the existence of Punjabi Taliban was not only admitted but also a deal was struck with them allowing Asmatullah Muawiya — the head of the banned Punjabi Taliban — to roam freely in the cities and towns of Pakistan.

After the TTP leaders’ pledge of allegiance to IS, IS flags and propaganda material emerged in a few cities of Pakistan but the government, other than removing flags and confiscating material, did not take any serious measures to infiltrate the ranks of IS’s potential network. The girls of the Lal Masjid-run Jamia Hafsa (a girls’ religious seminary) expressed their support for IS in a video message and invited them to come to Pakistan but the government remained asleep. Maulana Abdul Aziz, the head of the Red Mosque, and the likes of Orya Maqbool Jan, a columnist, publicly showed their sympathy and support for IS on the mainstream national media but still there was deep silence from the government and no questions were asked. If, from penetrating through the ranks of terrorists to arresting, convicting and executing them, from internal security to launching Operation Zarb-e-Azab and thwarting external threats and from providing support in natural calamities to settling the internally displaced persons (IDPs) are all the responsibility of the armed forces of Pakistan, then what is the role and job of the elected government? Such negligence and ostrich mentality of the government poses a serious question to its ability and the will to fight extremism and terrorism. The question in case of IS too is: is the government waiting for IS to commit a big massacre before it admits their presence?

Now, let us move to the IS presence in Pakistan and in the region at large. On January 19, 2015, Pakistan’s local media reported with reference to Reuters that the Bangladeshi police had arrested four suspected members of IS in Dhaka, including a regional coordinator for the militant group, who told police they had been trained in Pakistan. Two days later, Reuters claimed that the Pakistani security forces had arrested a man, Yousaf al-Salafi, a Pakistani Syrian they believe is the commander of IS in the country as well as two accomplices involved in recruiting and sending fighters to Syria. Yousaf al-Salafi was arrested in the eastern city of Lahore and confessed during interrogation that he represented IS in Pakistan. “Al-Salafi reached Pakistan through Turkey five months ago,” the source told Reuters. “He crossed into Turkey from Syria and was caught there. Somehow he managed to escape and reached Pakistan to establish IS.” The source told Reuters that one of his accomplices, Hafiz Tayyab, was a prayer leader in Lahore and was involved in recruiting Pakistanis and sending them to fight alongside IS in Syria, charging IS about $ 600 per person. Disgruntled former Taliban commanders have formed the so-called Khorasan chapter, an umbrella IS group covering Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and other South Asian countries, in recent months but have not been involved in any fighting. Their leader, Hafiz Saeed Khan Orakzai, a former Pakistani Taliban commander, appeared in a video address this month urging people in the region to join the group.

Dr Methew Dearing, an assistant professor at National Defence University in the US, made some stunning revelations in his January 22 piece for Foreign Policy magazine. According to him, Mullah Abdul Rauf Khadim, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee and a mid-level Taliban commander, who served as shadow governor of Uruzgan from 2007 to at least 2009, has established a new base of operations for IS in northern Helmand. Recently, his militia clashed with northern Helmand shadow governor Mullah Ahmad Shah. According to an Afghan army general in Helmand, Rauf is planting IS cells throughout numerous Helmand districts; another general insists they have spread into neighbouring Herat and Farah provinces, while two senators in the Afghan parliament assert IS operates in the northern Faryab and eastern Ghazni provinces. A tribal leader told members of the media that Rauf is replacing Taliban white flags with IS black flags, likely a symbol to residents of the evolving power dynamics.

How was Mullah Abdul Rauf allowed to plant IS cells in Afghanistan? This, in spite of the fact that he was released from Guantanamo Bay in 2007 after reaching an understanding with the US, the suspicious release of al-Safi from Turkey, the unchecked movement of terrorist recruits from Pakistan to Syria, US weapon airdrops apparently intended for Kurds reaching IS hands and the treatment of wounded ‘Syrians’ in Israeli hospitals, though the opponents claim these are IS fighters, raises some serious questions and doubts about the role, seriousness and the commitment of nations claiming to fight terrorism. However, for now, let us leave it here for some other appropriate time to further elaborate and ponder upon these questions.

It is clear from the chronology of recent events that IS territorial motivations extend well beyond Syria and Iraq. The formation of the IS Khorasan chapter and the rivalry between global jihadi groups for honour and terrorist recruits is a reality, and to claim honour, groups like IS or al Qaeda could commit a big massacre anytime anywhere. The IS is eying Pakistan and Afghanistan, especially the Pak-Afghan border areas, as their potential stronghold, with an ideal jihadi milieu. The TTP militants on the run due to Zarb-e-Azb also seem to be in search of their new master with a potentially much more lucrative offer. The emergence of IS on the South Asian scene is a great threat to regional peace and security, and could seriously jeopardise the current efforts of Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and the US for regional peace and security, especially after complete US withdrawal from Afghanistan. As for Pakistan, the IS operative’s arrest should be a wakeup call to shun its ostrich mentality and to prepare for an eminent threat as already deeply plunged in terrorism Pakistan can ill-afford any more complacency.