FUNDS, RECOGNITION FORCE TALIBAN HAND ON WIPING OUT ISIS-K

The Taliban took no time to quell protests by Afghan women who do not want their personal
freedoms taken away, but the fundamentalist force is loath to admit that it is unable to claim
any easy victory over the Islamist terrorist group, ISIS-K (Islamist State in Khorasan Province).
In the seven weeks since the Taliban grabbed power in Afghanistan, the IS has repeatedly
challenged their control by organising attacks in Jalalabad, Mazar-i-Sharif and capital, Kabul.
The Taliban have claimed that security to people “has been assured” since they came to power,
but they are unable to explain the daring attacks that bely their claims.
One of the biggest attacks so far came on August 26, just 11 days after the Taliban claimed to
have taken over control of Afghanistan. The ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the bombing at
Kabul’s international airport that killed 180 people and injured hundreds of others.
The Taliban conveniently refused to take responsibility for security of the airport and avoiding
the attack on the ground that “it took place in an area where US forces are responsible for
security”
Since then, several attacks reported in Jalalabad were also claimed by the ISIS-K as its own.
All these attacks involved IED explosions, killing civilians, while the terrorist group claimed
it targeted Taliban fighters. The group has till date claimed to have killed 35 Taliban fighters
in Jalalabad.
Though they are both Islamist groups, ISIS-K dislikes the Taliban on the ground that the latter
is not extreme enough. Bilal Karimi, a Taliban spokesman, said: “We have started
investigations into the incident to reach the culprits,”. But some local residents told The
Washington Post that at least three civilians were killed, including a child, and scores more
injured in the attack.
The complaints by resident Afghans is what nettles the Taliban because of the worry that
growing frustration among the population may one day end up confronting the Taliban itself.
Following the explosions, families of the victims even criticised the Taliban, “whom they saw
as failing to prevent one of the most lethal attacks in 20 years”. “This is all your fault; you all
did this. You didn’t secure anything,” The Washington Post quoted a relative of one of the
victims as shouting at the Taliban forces at a hospital in Kabul.
Relatives of some of the victims also spoke to Al Jazeera questioning if the Taliban were in
any position to take on a terrorist group “group known to have carried out increasingly brazen
and audacious attacks”.
According to local media reports appearing in the west, the Taliban is desperate to eliminate
the ISIS-K from Afghan soil but that is proving quite difficult to achieve. Severe crackdowns
have been launched against ISIS-K members in Nangarhar – their stronghold – and over 80
fighters have since been detained. The terrorist group’s former leader, Ziya-ul-Haq, also known
as Abu Omar Khorasani, was reportedly killed in Kabul’s Pul-e-Charkhi prison.
A leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Farooq Bengalzai, has also been killed
while on his way from Pakistan to south-western Afghanistan. The Taliban is claimed to be
behind the attack.
Similarly, the Taliban is being held responsible for arrested a Salafi scholar, Abu Obaidullah
Mutawakil, in Kabul, who was later found dead. The finger of suspicion pointed to the Taliban
who denied targeting him. However, within a couple of weeks, the Taliban had closed down
over three dozen Salafi mosques across the country.
The latest charge against the Taliban is that like former Afghan governments, it is also trying
to escape responsibility for hundreds of illegal detentions and extra-judicial killings by using
“labels like ‘ISIS-K’ and “al-Qaeda’ to go after any wanted elements without providing
evidence”.
While the Taliban is bent on breaking the ISIS-K grip over certain parts of Afghanistan, it is
also aware that if it does not defeat or eliminate the terrorist group in a short while, there is a
fear of the group engineering defections from the Taliban camp.
There are hundreds of rogue fighters currently in Afghanistan who claim to be members of the
Taliban. The latter does not contradict because that gives it leverage. However, even as the
Taliban want to appear clean and progressive before the world to seek recognition of their
government, they are hampered in the exercise by these rogue fighters who indulge in violence
and robberies on their own in provinces where they wield influence.
Busy with setting up a government and getting it recognised, the Taliban’s temporary return to
civility – except the scuffles with ISIS-K – is not appreciated by the rogue fighters who, like
mercenaries, want to see “action” for money. Their fears are not unfounded as it is claimed that
one of the first leaders of ISIS-K in Helmand and Farah provinces, Mullah Abdul Rauf
Khadem, was a defector from the Taliban.
Even though the Taliban have declared a general amnesty, people in the provinces complain of
violence by the rogue fighters. It has become such an issue that it has recently forced acting
Minister of Defence Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob to issue an audio message, saying: “There
are some bad and corrupt people who want to join us … To fulfil their own interest or to defame
us and make us look bad.”
Experts suggest that in the days to come, the Taliban will increase their attempts to contain the
ISIS-K threat because “if the Taliban is not able to eliminate ISKP, it will not be able to gain
the international recognition it needs to be able to run the country”. Not only that, the chances
of the United States unfreezing access to Afghan reserves become dim.
For these two reasons alone, the Taliban will have to end the presence of ISIS-K in Afghanistan.
In the Doha Agreement they signed with former US President Donald Trump, The Taliban had
agreed to sever ties with terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS affiliates. The world would
call upon the Taliban to keep its word now, even if that unbelievably means the Taliban
launching “counter-terrorism’ operations.