IS makes inroads into Pakistan
Date
6/28/2016 7:48:11 AM
(MENAFN- Asia Times) Despite the growing presence of Islamic State in Pakistan, Islamabad keeps denying that
But Islamabad keeps denying IS presence in the country.
The gradual rise of IS in Pakistan signifies a dangerous new dimension in the ongoing war against terrorism which seems to be leading nowhere. The spread of IS''s extremist ideology and its networking in Pakistan, coupled with the creeping incursions of the outfit inside neighboring Afghanistan, poses a serious threat to peace and stability in the region.
But the bizarre stance adopted by the federal government about the existence of IS network in Pakistan shows it is either deliberately dismissing the rising threat for public consumption, or it is unmindful of the wider ramifications. The November 2015 Paris terror attacks and the March 2016 Brussels suicide strikes point to IS transforming itself into a global terrorist network.
From Iraq and Syria to Khorasan
It was in September 2014 that the international media first reported the rise of IS in Pakistan when some followers of Daesh distributed pamphlets in Peshawar declaring that the Caliphate led by Abu Bakar al-Baghdadi was planning to expand its boundaries from Iraq and Syria to Khorasan.
The flyer titled ''Fatah'' (''Victory'') was published in Pashto and Dari languages. The logo of the pamphlet had theKalma, the historical stamp of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and a Kalashnikov assault rifle. Introducing itself asDaulat-e-Islamia(the Islamic State) in the pamphlet, the IS made an appeal to locals to support its struggle for establishing an Islamic caliphate in Pakistan.
A previously little known jihadi organization,Tehrik-e-Khilafat, which was considered to be a component of the Pakistani Taliban and had claimed responsibility for a string of terrorist attacks in Karachi, was the first jihadi outfit in South Asia to break ranks from al-Qaeda and declare its allegiance to IS.
''Sheikh Abu Bakar al-Baghdadi shall consider Tehrik-e-Khilafat as one of the arrows among his arrows which he has kept for his bow. We are praying from the almighty Allah to give us chance to see in our lives the expansion of Islamic State''s boundaries toward the sub-continent and Khorasan region in order to hoist the flag of Islamic State here,'' a group spokesman had declared then.
Khorasan is the historic name used by the militants for an area covering Pakistan, Afghanistan and some parts of India. The IS map shows Afghanistan and Pakistan as part of IS''s Khorasan province. Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants believe the movement for the establishment of the Islamic State of Khorasan will emerge from the region comprising Kunar and Nuristan provinces of Afghanistan and Malakand region of Pakistan.
They deem Khorasan as the base camp of international jihad from where they will expand the boundaries of IS into non-Muslim lands.
The second Pakistani terror group which joined hands with IS wasJamaat-ul-Ahraar(JuA). The group pledged its allegiance to Baghdadi on September 4, 2014. However, JuA leader, Commander Omar Khalid Khurasani, decided to rejoin the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) six months laterafter the Pakistani military drive in North Waziristan ''Operation Zarb-e-Azab'' forced him as well as his fighters to flee to Afghanistan.
Almost two years after the emergence of IS in Peshawar, the federal government continues to deny the organized presence of IS which keeps recruiting Pakistanis. This despite a recent communique from a military-run intelligence agency.
The communique informed the Ministry of Interior about the presence of IS recruiters in Pakistan, who belong to India, Syria and Canada. It saidfive Syrian nationals, a dual national (Canadian/Syrian) and an Indian national had recently entered Pakistanusing fake documents through Afghanistan or Iran border.
''These Daesh (IS) men have established links and are working on a recruitment agenda. Fares Aruri is a Syrian national who is on recruitment mission in Pakistan. Similarly, Otari al-Najadi and his wife (Saba Fakhri) and Shakoori Mustafa and his wife (Farida Shakoori) also traveled to Pakistan on Syrian passports. Anka Asmahaan, who is a dual national of Syria and Canada, and Saeedul Aslam, who is an Indian national, are currently in Pakistan and working for Daesh'', the letter said while recommending strict scrutiny on those traveling on Syrian travel documents (to Pakistan) through international cross-points.
In fact, the Pakistani intelligence agencies are searching for the whereabouts of 200 IS suspects who illegally crossed into Pakistan to recruit militants for the extremist outfit. On January 22, 2015, Pakistani security agencies arrested Yousaf al-Salafi, identified as the chief IS recruiter in Pakistan, and two of his accomplices, who were sending fighters to Syria, from Shahdara area of Lahore.
Salafi, a Pakistani Syrian, confessed that he represented the IS in Pakistan and had arrived five months ago through Turkey. Although he was caught by security forces in Turkey, he managed to escape. Pakistani media reported that he confessed to receiving funds for recruitment through the U.S.
Salafi''s accomplices were identified as Hafiz Tayyab and Mohammad Fawad. Tayyab was a prayer leader in a Lahore mosque and he was charging IS about $600 per recruit sent to Syria.
2015 Karachi busshooting
Scene at a local hospital in Karachi after the attack on bus passengers on May 13, 2015
The May 13, 2015 killing of 46 bus passengers in Safoora Goth, Karachi, gave clear evidence of the presence of IS in Pakistan. Most of those shot dead were members of the Ismaili Shia minority community. Pamphlets left behind at the crime scene by the eight masked gunmen showed that the attack was carried out by IS.
Subsequent arrests revealed that the Safoora Goth carnage was committed by an IS terrorist cell consisting of graduates of major private and public universities from Karachi. Investigations showed that al-Qaeda and Taliban were penetrating academic institutions for fresh recruits, especially those studying computer sciences, applied physics and applied chemistry. IS also gained many sympathizers in other places.
Raja Umar Khattab, the chief of Karachi police''s Counter-Terrorism Department, said at a press conference in Karachi on December 18, 2015 that the wives of two of the arrested terrorists involved in the Safoora bus carnage, along with their accomplices, used sermons and videos to brainwash educated and rich women into joining IS.
Four arrested men — Khalid Yusuf Bari, Saleem Ahmed, Suleman Saeed and Adil Masood Butt gave financial support and inspiration for the accused to commit the dastardly act, Khattab said.
On December 31, 2015, Bushra Cheema, principal of a Lahore-based Islamic center, left home along with her four children telling her husband Khalid on phone that she wanted to attend a Quranic teaching session. She never returned.
A week later, Bushra again called Khalid to inform him that she was in Quetta, Pakistan, and on her way to Syria through Iran to join IS along with their children. Investigations showed that at least 20 men, women and children connected with Bushra''s network had already left for Syria.
Investigators found thatIS aspirants were taking the Iran route for Syria used by migrants. According to them, Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD)led by the Mumbai terror attacks mastermind Hafiz Mohammad Saeed was losing its affiliates to IS.
Bushra is now persuading her husband and women to join her. Khalid, who had been affiliated with JuD, shared with interrogators the messages he received from his wife urging him to join the jihad.
Bushra, who had earlier been affiliated with the Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan, did her M Phil from Punjab University in Lahore and was honorary principal at the Noor-ul-Hudaa Islamic Center in Lahore. How she got in touch with IS leadership is still unknown. But investigators say she had been in correspondence with Baghdadi. While her exchanges with her husband were through WhatsApp, she used Skype to persuade women to join IS.
Al-Qaeda-linked groups like Tehreek-e-Taliban of Pakistan and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi are exporting ''holy warriors'' to wage war in Syria and Iraq