Afghanistan: Who is the Real Hand Behind ISKP?

Marzia Tahiri, Suhaila Yari, Maryam Hakimi, Idris Azmi and 14 more students were no ordinary students. They have a lot in common.

• They were the students of Public Administration Faculty of Kabul University.
• All of them were of 20-23 years of age.
• Out of them, 12 were young girls who decided to break the taboo of Islamic Sharia law and study in a university.
• All of them decided to stay in a war-torn Afghanistan at a time when most of the Afghan people migrated to Europe and other parts of the world in search of peace.
• All of them were aspiring to become civil officials in the Afghan Government.
• All of them left their fears behind and had a dream of making Afghanistan peaceful and prosperous again.

But all of them, unfortunately, died young with their dreams when Islamic Radicals attacked the university on the Second Day of November 2020.

Not only these 18 but another 14 people were also killed. Some of them were the students of nearby faculty of Law while some of them were senior faculty members and staff of the university. In total 32 innocent lives were lost within a few hours.

(Classroom after the attack in Kabul University)

Kabul University is no ordinary University. While on one hand, it has the distinction to produce five of the presidents and four of the Prime Ministers of Afghanistan, leaders like Ahmed Shah Masoud, Burhanuddin Rabbani, Mohammed Najibullah and Taher Badakshi, eminent medical professionals like Dr Abdulkader Baha and Dr Abdurrahim Lodin, social activists and poets like Wasef Bakhtari and Saydal Sokandan. Not to forget various foreign scholars who came to study here from far-flung Europe and America too which include Nancy Dupree.

Even in the three-decade-long civil war in Afghanistan, the university continued to function despite disruptions which were inevitable due to Soviet-Afghan war. In real terms, the University took a jolt when Taliban forces occupied Kabul and enforced their Islamic curriculum over the country. Nevertheless, the university recouped after Taliban was flushed out of the capital city and was flourishing since then. No one in the war-torn country ever tried to attack this noble institution until on 2^nd November 2020 when three suspected Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP) terrorists stormed the university, took more than 35 hostages and killed them all before they got killed by Afghan Commandos.

The scene at the university was disturbing, pictures were saying the story of this merciless terror attack. Dead bodies were littered everywhere in the compound of Public Administration Faculty and blood-stained floor and walls were haunting everyone. It was the unfortunate day when an Iranian book exhibition was about to start in the University compound and many foreign delegates including some senior government officials were expected to visit.

Terrorists had a big plan. They wanted to attack the foreign delegates as well as government officials but targeted the innocent students instead. The responsibility was taken by ISKP but going into the detail, we can assimilate as to who is the real hand behind this so-called ISKP which is an offshoot of famous Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (ISIS) known for its barbaric methods of execution.

Who is the real hand behind ISKP?

We all know that Afghanistan has been a bone of contention between Pakistan and peace-loving Afghanis. For the last fifty years or so, Pakistan always wanted to have its absolute control over the hill country which is evident from the events in the past. When Soviets occupied Afghanistan in the seventies, Pakistan created an anti-Soviet coalition with the help of the United States. When Soviets left and members of the Afghan Coalition formed the government and later, they were reluctant to dance to the tunes of Pakistan, it created Al-Qaeda and Taliban to fight them. When Al-Qaeda was targeted by United States post 26/11, Pakistan ISI gave all its support to Taliban which is a serious threat to Afghanistan even now. We all know that 70% of Taliban leaders are Pakistani, Pakistan ISI operatives and regular Pakistan Army soldiers. All the decisions of the Taliban are taken in Aabpara-Islamabad where the headquarters of Inter Service Intelligence is located.

Rise of ISKP in Afghanistan is truly like a fairy tale. Its birth coincided with the US-Taliban peace talks. It was when the Taliban had to stop its operations in some of the sectors, ISI needed another non-state actor to perform the dirty activities it wanted in Afghanistan. So quickly, some of the Taliban operatives who were known to be loyal to ISI announced the creation of ISKP. Any new terror group takes time to equip itself but ISKP became a fully equipped group in less than a year. The group, which was non-existent till five years ago, is now actively present in nine provinces of Afghanistan and boasts of a size of more than 4,000 operatives. All credit goes to ISI.

Afghan Government, in its official press release, confirmed that the attackers were not from ISKP. ISKP took the responsibility basically to hide the deeds of someone else. We have a few strong reasons to prove that this attack was orchestrated by ISI and not carried out by ISKP.

1. The identities, modus-operandi as well as weapons used by the attackers were not the ones used by ISKP.
2. As per international security experts, ISKP did not have any significant capability to execute such attacks in the capital city.
3. Although they are present in Afghanistan- coming to Kabul, hiding there and carrying out such dreaded attack is not the ISKP way of terrorism.
4. It was a well-planned attack carried out with an ulterior motive of capturing Kabul- the capital of Afghanistan. It is a known fact that it is none other than notorious Haqqani network which wants to control Kabul, has the capabilities of carrying out such attacks in Kabul and their modus-operandi matches exactly with the attack.
5. Even in the past, in the middle east as well as in Europe- ISIS has been known to claim responsibility of numerous attacks which were later proved to be carried out by other groups.
6. In this case, ISKP is just acting as a proxy of Haqqani network or we can say in a broader perspective that they are acting as a proxy of Taliban since Haqqani network is officially an integral part of Taliban.

Why ISKP is acting as a proxy of Haqqani’s/ Taliban: –

There is clear evidence to prove that ISKP is a proxy of the Taliban. Let’s understand this pointwise.

• Due to the US-Taliban peace deal, Taliban may not be able to dance to the tunes of Pakistan. Hence ISI now needs a new proxy in Afghanistan.
• Haqqani Network has always been a matter of dispute between the US and Pakistan. The United States had always been asking Pakistan to curb on Haqqani’s which Pakistan intentionally failed to do.
• The proximity of Haqqani’s with Pakistan ISI is not a secret. They are hand in gloves and it is Haqqani’s who have been considered closest to Pakistan govt, Pakistan Army and ISI among all the non-state actors operating in this region. They have been calling shots in the Pak-Afghan border region.
• Everyone knows who is funding Haqqani’s, who is channelising their money and who is facilitating their requirements of arms and ammunition. It is undoubtedly ISI.
• To claim supremacy in Afghanistan, terror attacks must become a routine and Afghan population, as well as their government, does not get a breather. So, it becomes inevitable that attacks on the Afghan population are carried out unabatedly.
• But if Haqqani’s identity is revealed in these attacks- it will force not only the United States but other global organisations like UN and FATF to act against Pakistan which their government, a puppet in the hands of the military, would never want.
• Hence, the only option left is to create new proxies, the way ISI has been doing in the past and use these proxies in various terror attacks. In this case, the new proxy is ISKP.

The arrest of ISKP Leadership and Their Revelations

Around 7 months back, the dreaded leader of ISKP Maulvi Abdullah Orakzai alias Aslam Farooqui along with another senior commander Munib Mohammad alias Abu Bilal and 18 more people was arrested by Afghan Security forces on 5^th April 2020. Ironically all the arrested at that time were found out to be Pakistani nationals. We don’t have to guess as to who the real hand behind ISKP is.

                              (Arrested Terrorists of ISKP)

Their disclosure after a long interrogation revealed horrific plots. The story started immediately after the 29^th Feb 2020 pact between the Taliban and the United States Representative Zalmay Khalilzad in which a planned withdrawal of US Forces was proposed. Taliban promised that it will not allow Al-Qaeda to operate from areas under its control. Al-Qaeda, which was the child of Pakistani ISI, now had difficulties operating in Afghanistan so a well-planned strategy was formed in the ISI headquarters to create some new proxies. ISIS was facing jolts and faced almost complete annihilation in the middle east. Some of their fighters who were Pakistani Nationals returned to their country of origin and proposed revival of ISIS with the help of Pakistan in Indian Subcontinent.

Soon officials of ISI came up with a movement called “Khilafat-e-Islami Khorasan”. The primary aim of this movement was to bring in all the non-state actors under the banner of ISKP to establish Islamic control over not only Afghanistan but the entire Indian Sub-Continent. This included Afghan, Pakistani and Kashmiri terror groups. A fake but rosy picture was placed before them where the entire Indian Sub-Continent is to be captured by Islamic Forces.

Aslam Farooqui and Munib Mohammad who were arrested were Pakistani nationals, both were active Al-Qaeda operatives, both were trained by Pakistani ISI and both were known for their close ties with Haqqani Network. In fact, before joining ISKP, they were actively working for Haqqani Network only.

Suddenly, they detached themselves from Haqqani’s and declared their affiliation with ISKP. Such things don’t happen overnight. Directions from Pakistan ISI must have facilitated this.  This further strengthens the belief that ISKP, Haqqani Network and Pakistan Army are different faces of the same coalition.

Munib disclosed that his primary job in the ISKP was to co-ordinate with Inter-Service Intelligence regularly and through them connect with other terrorist groups like Lashkar-E-Taiyabba, Jaish-E-Muhammad, Sipah-E-Sahaba, Haqqani Network, Jamaat-Ul-Ulema-E-Islam and Taliban Peshawar Shura. He was tasked to bring in their fighters to the areas declared void after the 29^th Feb pact with the Taliban and create a strong base for mercenaries to engage with Afghan Security Forces.

Bringing all the groups under one banner was the primary strategy to execute “Khilafat-e-Islami Khorasan”. Munib also revealed that all the ISKP units operating in Nangarhar and Kabul area are reporting and taking directions from none other than Sirajuddin Haqqani. He disclosed that the Haqqani network is officially the caretaker or ISKP in Afghanistan as well as Pakistan. These are big revelations and needs to be analysed under proper light.

Pakistan ISI’s hand behind ISKP is further established by the selection of new ISKP chief after the arrest of Munib and Aslam Farooqui. Since Pakistan ISI had the privilege to appoint someone as new ISKP chief, selection of Maulvi Muhammad was an expected decision. Like his predecessor Aslam Farooqui, Maulvi Muhammad too is a Pakistani, ex Al-Qaeda, ex-Haqqani, trained by Pakistan ISI and had been a frequent visitor to Aabpara complex.

The Mystery of Ayman-Al-Zawahiri and Inter Service Intelligence

Soon after the death of Osama Bin Laden in May 2011, his deputy and then leader of Al-Qaeda Ayman-Al-Zawahiri disappeared. He was the most wanted terrorist of the world after Osama and while the global powers were busy searching for him, he was enjoying the hospitality of Inter Services Intelligence. The same way Osama Bin Laden was staying in a safe house created by ISI until he was hunted down. Few questions arise when we talk of Ayman-Al-Zawahiri.

Where was he hiding for more than a decade?

Why Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan is gradually disappearing and ISKP building its strength?

How come ISKP started rising to the prominence in Afghanistan soon after 2011 (Immediately Osama Bin Laden was hunted down)?

How was it possible for a terrorist with USD 25 Million bounty (Ayman-Al-Zawahiri) to hide safely in a war zone like Afghanistan where no one is considered safe?

The answer to all these questions lies with one and only- Pakistan Inter Service Intelligence.

In 2017, Jeff Stein, an investigative journalist disclosed in “Newsweek” that Zawahiri was continuously enjoying the protection of Pakistan ISI. He quoted Bruce Riddel, a CIA veteran that the materials recovered from Abbottabad complex directly pointed out Zawahiri’s presence in the port city of Karachi under the protection of ISI. He was shifted thereby Pakistan government because knowing the city, it is near impossible for any US-led forces to launch a commando raid there. ISI kept him in a safe house located in a suburb just like Osama Bin Laden. Karachi is an endless city dominated by multiple communities which has some of the unique places where even Pakistan Army do not dare to enter.

We must discuss a May 2020 report of UN Sanctions Monitoring team which revealed that Ayman-Al-Zawahiri met the members of Haqqani Network as early as Feb 2020. This was just before the 29^th Feb 2020 pact between Taliban and United States. Zawahiri wanted his influence over the meeting and hence wanted to know the Taliban stance. Obviously, this meeting could have been arranged by none other than Pakistan ISI. In this meeting, Ayman-Al-Zawahiri met Hafiz Aziz Uddin Haqqani and Yahya Haqqani, the two senior leaders of Taliban and the meeting was arranged in an ISI controlled haven of Haqqani’s located in Pakistan.

                        (Screenshot from the UN Sanctions Report May 2020)

It will be pertinent to mention here that Yahya Haqqani is the brother in law of Sirajuddin Haqqani and is counted among his closest accomplishes. He is fluent in Arabic and often used to act as an interpreter between Sirajuddin and various Arabic leaders (Including Ayman-Al-Zawahiri). The report also pointed out that during each stage of negotiation between the United States and Taliban, Haqqani’s (being part of Taliban) were regularly consulting the top leadership of Al-Qaeda (Zawahiri in this case).

ISI is the root cause of all Terrorism related incidents in Indian Subcontinent

Wherever we see the root cause of terrorism in Indian Subcontinent, be it Al-Qaeda, be it Taliban, be it Haqqani’s or be it ISKP, Pakistan ISI is a common factor connecting all the dots between these groups. As a result, the common Afghani population is suffering and their students are getting killed mercilessly in terror related events.

Taliban is engaged in peace deals with the United States without keeping Afghanistan government informed, educational institutions are targeted and Pakistan’s actions to have a total supremacy over Afghanistan continues unabated for the last five decades. No matter what, but to bring peace in Afghanistan, the very first step should be to crack down on ISI-Haqqani-ISKP coalition. Pakistan will always be there to act as a spoiler in bringing peace to Afghanistan.

Afghan Mujahideen to Al-Qaeda, Taliban and now Haqqani Network and ISKP, Pakistan’s hand in creating trouble in Afghanistan is evident. Even if global powers are successful in bringing peace with one or more groups, Pakistan will create another proxy in no time. ISI is good at it and doing it for over half a century. If the world wishes to have lasting peace in Afghanistan, these dirty actions of Pakistan need to be stopped first and Pakistan’s influence in Afghanistan has to be curtailed by exposing their doublespeak and support to international terrorism.