Afghanistan’s instability and conflict have been a decade-long source of international security concern, as there have been numerous terror organizations that have used the country as a base to operate. The United Nations Security Council’s Monitoring Committee latest report illustrates the changing and persistent threat posed by such groups as ISIS, al-Qaida, and their affiliates, particularly in South Asia. Even though the report does admit that the dominance of some of these institutions is declining, it also emphasizes the point that they are still disseminating risk at the local as well as global levels.
The nation’s political and geographical location continues to be fertile soil for organizations like al-Qaida, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP). The world continues to be highly concerned with the inability of the Taliban government to keep such groups under control, the U.N. report confirms.
Activities of al-Qaida in Afghanistan have been severely curtailed from previous years, the U.N. report states. But this fall should not be interpreted as evidence that al-Qaida has been rendered obsolete. Rather, the ambitions of the group are still high in the sense that they intend to rebuild cells in the majority of the world, including Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Europe. Al-Qaida still has its roots in Afghanistan but with a presence across six provinces, i.e., Ghazni, Helmand, Kandahar, Kunar, Uruzgan, and Zabul. While their capacity to operate has been cut short, their final goals form a serious menace.
The warning signs for this close association of the Taliban with al-Qaida are also present in the report. Although ISIS is as opposed to the Taliban regime as can be imagined, al-Qaida is in close association with the Taliban because both were allies during the 1990s. It would be difficult for the Taliban to take action against al-Qaida in reality, even though the group has a partial presence on Afghan soil.
The Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) resurgence is an even greater hazard. ISKP presents the most potent terror threat to South Asia, the report considers, with serious regional and global security implications. ISKP is largely based in north-eastern and northern Afghanistan and directs its violence against the Taliban regime, Shia minorities, and foreigners. ISKP recruitment drive, however, is not limited to only Afghanistan but also to the Central Asian republics and even Russia’s North Caucasus, a definite indication of their transnational front aspirations.
ISKP has also been extremely active in indoctrinating kids right through to recruiting at the very tender age of 14 years old for suicide missions. This in itself is proof not only of the disrespect for human life in this group, but of the extent of radicalization of kids in Afghanistan. Although ISKP activity has been tried to be suppressed by the Taliban, the report describes how ISKP continues to conduct operations with at least some level of impunity, drawing on popular dissatisfaction with Taliban rule to recruit and fill its ranks.
The second of concern groups raised by the U.N. report are Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a Pakistani anti-insurgency movement based primarily out of Afghanistan. The Taliban’s reported facilitation of the TTP has also put a strain between Pakistan and the Taliban government as the Pakistani government claims the Taliban government is harboring the TTP. The report says the TTP has continued to enjoy the logistic and operational backing of the Taliban while the leadership of the Taliban has repeatedly denied it on many occasions.
TTP operations against Pakistani targets have grown more intense in recent years, and their activities in Afghanistan have raised the confrontational level between Islamabad and Kabul as well. The failure of the Taliban to keep the TTP under their control is regarded as the key driver of present instability in the region.
Taliban spokesmen like spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid and Army Chief of Staff Qari Fasihuddin Fitrat rejected the U.N. report saying the claims are “propaganda” and foreign terror organizations are lying low in Afghanistan. While these were the denials, evidence presented in the U.N. report shows otherwise, with al-Qaida and ISKP possessing operational training camps and recruitment centers in different parts of the country.
Taliban’s own denial of the presence of such organizations is proof of how ideologically and politically aligned they are with groups such as al-Qaida. They would publicly deny such a presence, but on the ground, such organizations have minimal interference from the Afghan state.
The global community needs to realize that either the Taliban regime of Afghanistan will not or does not actively pursue terrorist groups still menancing regional and global security. The UN report is a forceful reminder of threats posed by ISIS, al-Qaida, and their affiliates. Downplaying the threat from the Taliban invites only such groups and risks destabilizing the region and Afghanistan.
That will mean Taliban will have to evidently strive towards dismantling the terror apparatus of this nation if this country is ever going to shed off this state of instability and lawlessness. Otherwise, this country becomes a nursery for extremism in this already restive corner of the world.
Briefly, the Afghan situation is still catastrophic. The Taliban may deny the facts hurled against them in the U.N. report whatever they desire, but the ground situation says something else. The sooner the Taliban embraces reality regarding the true proportion of the threat posed by such terror groups, the better their destiny and the regional security will be.
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