The BBC had quoted a purported Hizb-e-Islami commander, Mirwais as claiming that the group has “links with some Daish members” and the leadership will announce their allegiance to them.
The Hizb-e-Islami spokesperson Haroon Zarghoon categorically rejected the reports and said that neither he nor anyone else in the group recognize the so-called commander who has made the claim.
“The news reports that Hizb-e-Islami could join the Islamic State are outrageous and totally baseless. I categorically reject it,” Zarghoon told The Express Tribune from an undisclosed location by phone.
He also denied any links with a pamphlet, seeking support for the IS, distributed in the border regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan, in Peshawar district as well as in Afghan refugee camps. The 12-page versions of the pamphlet in Pasto and Dari languages have been sent to Afghan journalists in Peshawar.
He said Hizb-e-Islami recognize the fact that the Islamic State has emerged as the result of “anti-Muslim policies of the United States and their brutalities against Muslims in Iraq and other Islamic countries.”
Hizb-e-Islami chief Hekmatyar in a recent article touched on the IS issue and said it was a reaction to the “brutalities against Sunnis in Iraq at the behest of the Americans.”
“The IS state is gaining momentum as the US has continued its anti-Muslim policies,” Hekmatyar said in his article published in Hizb’s Daily Shahadat.
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