A batch of 11 Afghan Sikhs arrived in Delhi last week after two persons from the community were killed in a terror attack on Gurdwara Dashmesh Pita Guru Gobind Singh Karte Parwan in Kabul on June 18.
The Islamic State-Khorasan Province claimed responsibility for that attack, saying it was “an act of support for the Messenger of Allah”. The attack came days after the IS-KP said it would avenge remarks made against the Prophet by a suspended BJP leader. What is the IS-KP, where does it operate?
History
Formed in 2015, the IS-KP is the regional affiliate of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), also known as ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant). Khorasan refers to a region that falls in modern-day Pakistan and Afghanistan.
In the run-up to its creation, several members of the Al-Qaeda, Taliban and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had publicly defected to the outfit and pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the first caliph of ISIS.
Emissaries from the IS were sent to Afghanistan and Pakistan to meet the defectors and this led to the announcement of the Islamic State’s expansion with the formation of Wilayat Khorasan or Khorasan province.
Hafiz Khan Saeed, a former TTP commander, was made the IS-KP’s first emir, or head. Saeed had previously conducted operations in Pakistan’s strategic border area, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), providing the IS-KP with well laid-out networks to recruit from.
Joined by members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and other militant outfits drawing recruits from Central Asia, the IS-KP established itself as an important group.
Over time, the Nangarhar province became the IS-KP’s stronghold as they terrorised local inhabitants and took control of several territories in the province, including the infamous Tora Bora caves.
Ideology and Goals
In sync with the Islamic State’s ideology, the IS-KP’s seeks to establish a global Islamic caliphate, a pure Islamic State, wherein members strictly follow the sharia and the sunna, the Prophet’s traditions. Holding the belief that the enemy is not merely the West, but apostates and non-believers as well, the IS-KP is known for its jihad on minorities and so-called kafirs.
The IS-KP and the Taliban
Then leader of the Taliban, Akhtar Mansour initially sought to combine the IS-KP fighters with the Taliban’s forces “under one banner”, however relations between the two groups quickly soured. The IS-KP actively recruited defectors from the Taliban and Mansour called for this to stop, arguing that the fight in Afghanistan should be waged under Taliban leadership.
Conflict between the groups broke out and the Taliban attempted to recapture IS-KP territory by deploying elite ‘Red Unit’ commandos. However, the relationship between the two terror outfits is not solely hostile as they are linked by the Haqqani Network, an autonomous elite group within the Taliban. The Network is known to have previously worked with the IS-KP, particularly for its complex attacks, with the earlier Afghan establishment alleged the IS-KP was a mere front for the Haqqani Network.
Today, the IS-KP continues to work as an anti-establishment force against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
The group’s stance on conducting no dialogue with the West appealed to those Taliban members who were against negotiations with the US in 2021.
Calling the Taliban’s success a “Mullah Bradley” project or a United States proxy in its newsletter al-Nab, the IS-KP dismissed Taliban rule and criticised their narrow goals limited to Afghanistan and instead proposed their idea of a universal emirate.
Post-Taliban takeover
A briefing by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in 2021 shed light on the outfit’s expansion with its presence spreading from a few provinces to nearly every Afghan province with the number of attacks linked to them rising from 60 in 2020 to 334 by mid-November, 2021.
Though the IS-KP may currently lack the resources and coordination possessed by other groups, but their ability to undertake attacks such as the one on Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul last year which killed about 170 Afghans and 13 American military personnel, cannot be underestimated.
Michael Kugelman of the US-based think tank Wilson Center, called the IS-KP resilient, saying: “Now after the Taliban takeover and the US departure, ISIS-K has emerged even stronger”
This increased activity poses complications for Central Asia, as the IS-KP has sought to spread propaganda directed at Tajik, Uzbek and Kygryz speakers through media outlets such as Al-Azaim and various Telegram groups.
The withdrawal of the US from Afghanistan opened a power vacuum emboldening adversary terror outfits such as the IS-KP, with the outfit’s troops now bordering 4,000, to challenge the Taliban’s authority.