Emerging shadow of the Islamic State

The IS may not be operationalised in Pakistan but it is only a matter of time before it is


Editorial January 22, 2015
In this photograph taken on October 16, 2014 shows motorists driving past an empty police check post with graffiti which reads as ISIS along a street on the outskirts of Karachi. PHOTO: AFP

When the matter of whether or not there was an Islamic State (IS) presence has been raised with any of the ruling party, it has been vehemently denied. Such denials are going to be more difficult to make in the wake of the arrest by security forces in Lahore of a man reported by Reuters news agency to be the commander of the IS in Pakistan. He is said to be a Syrian-Pakistani and, along with two accomplices, is believed to have been recruiting people to send to Syria to fight under the IS banner. This was a money-making venture for the man arrested as he was charging about $600 per person, but there is no information about how many men he has recruited and dispatched.



The rise of the IS in parts of Syria and Iraq in the last year has seemingly taken many by surprise, though the organisation has existed for several years. It is militarily powerful as it is utilising a vast stockpile of equipment and munitions left behind by the Americans, and it is very adept in its utilisation of social media to get its message across. It is a message of uncompromising brutality, punctuated by the beheading of Western hostages and events such as the persecution and killing of the Yazidi minority in northern Iraq. It has also proved to be self-sufficient, financing itself through the sale of oil on the black market and running refineries — which the Americans and others have bombed — in Syria. Most recently, it has demanded a ransom of $200 million from the government of Japan for the release of two of its nationals.

All of this is happening far from Pakistan, but there have been credible reports of IS literature in circulation and other reports of members of the Pakistan Taliban pledging their allegiance to the IS. What there has not been thus far is an operation carried out in Pakistan that is claimed by the IS, and ‘security sources’ are doubtful that there is an operational link between the IS as it is operating in Iraq and the Middle East, and South Asia generally. This is small comfort.

One of the many strengths of the IS is that it is able to exploit weaknesses in governments, and ride on the back of the dissatisfaction that populations feel with the way their governments are delivering for them. The Taliban franchise in Pakistan is fractious and factionalised, and several disaffected Taliban commanders have created what is known as the Khorasan chapter of the IS, which is an ‘umbrella’ covering Afghanistan, India and other countries of South Asia. It is not an organisation that can be wished away, denied or otherwise rendered invisible simply because it is politically inconvenient; the IS is in Pakistan and it will be busy.

Pakistan is vulnerable to entryism by the IS because there are already sections of the populace that have been radicalised and are Taliban symapthisers if not fellow travellers, and governance both federally and provincially is weak in a number of areas, principally in the northwest of the country. There is widespread dissatisfaction with the performance of the government, and the belated National Action Plan (NAP) post to the attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar is going to be slow to mature and bear fruit nationally. Sindh and Balochistan are already lagging behind in terms of NAP implementation.

The IS may not be operationalised in Pakistan but it is only a matter of time before it is, and there will be an incident to which it lays claim. The underlying mindset of extremist sympathies is the foundation of a latent infrastructure that will be easily potentiated. There are experienced and battle-hardened fighters who are already in place and may choose to march under the IS flag and there is nothing that can be done to stop them if they so wish. The Islamic State is not yet a threat, but it will be.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 23rd,  2015.

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