Over two dozen terror groups in Afghanistan are ‘driver of instability’: UN report
The UN report said while IS was unable to mount large-scale attacks in India, its “handlers tried to incite lone actor attacks through India-based supporters”
NEW DELHI: The threat posed by more than two dozen terror groups active in Afghanistan remains a “driver of instability” in the region, with the Afghan Taliban’s “permissive environment” allowing al-Qaeda to consolidate, according to a new United Nations report.
The Islamic State-Khorasan Province, also known as ISIL-K and based in Afghanistan, poses the “greatest extra-regional terrorist threat”, said the report from the team monitoring the UN Security Council’s sanctions on Islamic State and al-Qaeda and their affiliates.
Despite the loss of territory and attrition among senior and mid-tier leaders of more than two dozen terror groups operating in Afghanistan, UN member states believe the security threat emanating from the country is a “continuing driver of instability in the region and beyond”. The presence of terror groups in Afghanistan also poses a “serious challenge to the stability of the country”, and to the security of Central Asian and other neighbouring states, the report said.
The threat posed by the ISIL-K is reflected in the group’s attacks targeting Taliban authorities and religious and ethnic minorities in Afghanistan, as well as terrorist attacks as far away as Europe. The killing of the Taliban’s acting minister of refugees, Khalil Ahmed Haqqani, in a suicide bombing on December 11 that was claimed by ISIL-K marked the highest-profile casualty since the Taliban takeover of Kabul in 2021.
“Notwithstanding the measures taken by the Taliban to counter ISIL-K, the group represented the most serious threat to the [Taliban] authorities, ethnic and religious minorities, the United Nations, foreign nationals and international representatives in Afghanistan,” the report said.
In the case of al-Qaeda, the report said, the permissive environment maintained by the Taliban has allowed the group to consolidate and establish safe houses and training camps across Afghanistan.
Low-profile al-Qaeda members continue to live in Afghanistan with their families “under the protection of the Taliban intelligence service” in Kabul neighbourhoods such as Qala-e-Fatullah, Shar-e-Naw and Wazir Akbar Khan, while senior leaders are based in rural areas in Kunar, Ghazni, Logar and Wardak provinces.
The report pointed to increased collaboration between the Pakistan Taliban, Afghan Taliban and al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), which have conducted attacks under the banner of Tehrik-e Jihad Pakistan (TJP).
“Greater facilitation among these groups and TTP in terms of the provision of suicide bombers and fighters and ideological guidance might transform the latter into an extra-regional threat and an umbrella organization for other terrorist groups operating in the region,” the report cautioned.
The report noted that while the Islamic State or Da’esh was unable to mount large-scale attacks in India, its “handlers tried to incite lone actor attacks through India-based supporters”. The report added: “The pro-ISIL (Da’esh) Al-Jauhar Media continued to spread anti-India propaganda through its publication Serat ul-Haq.”
