As desperate people at Kabul airport in Afghanistan were waiting to get on any evacuation flights to flee the Taliban, twin suicide bombs on Thursday ripped through crowds, killing at least 170 people, including 13 US troops.
The Islamic State group or ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the deadly attack, which added more urgency and heartbreak to the frantic US-led campaign to airlift people out of the war-torn country now that the hardline Islamist group has seized power.
The airport blasts came as the August 31 deadline looms for the United States to withdraw its troops, and for it and other Western countries to end a massive airlift that has already evacuated nearly 100,000 people.
With such barbaric attacks by the ISIS-K in Afghanistan, a threat has loomed over other countries too, including India.
What is Islamic State-Khorasan (ISIS-K)?
Months after the Islamic State declared a caliphate in Iraq and Syria in 2014, breakaway fighters from the Pakistani Taliban joined militants in Afghanistan to form a regional chapter, pledging allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The group was formally acknowledged by the central Islamic State leadership the next year as it sunk roots in northeastern Afghanistan, particularly Kunar, Nangarhar and Nuristan provinces.
It also managed to set up sleeper cells in other parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan, including Kabul, according to United Nations monitors.
Latest estimates of its strength vary from several thousand active fighters to as low as 500, according to a UN Security Council report released last month.
“Khorasan" is a historical name for the region, taking in parts of what is today Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia.
What kind of attacks has it carried out?
The Islamic State’s Afghanistan-Pakistan chapter has been responsible for some of the deadliest attacks of recent years. It has massacred civilians in both countries, at mosques, shrines, public squares and even hospitals. The group has especially targeted Muslims from sects it considers heretical, including Shiites.
Last year, it was blamed for an attack that shocked the world — gunmen went on a bloody rampage at a maternity ward in a predominantly Shiite neighbourhood of Kabul, killing 16 mothers and mothers-to-be.
Beyond bombings and massacres, IS-Khorasan has failed to hold any territory in the region, suffering huge losses because of Taliban and US-led military operations.
According to UN and US military assessments, after the phase of heavy defeats IS-Khorasan now operates largely through covert cells based in or near cities to carry out high-profile attacks.
IS ISIS-K A Threat to India?
The Islamic State or ISIS links have been earlier found in states like Telangana, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.
A UN report on terrorism had in July 2020 warned that there are “significant numbers" of Islamic State (IS) terrorists in Kerala and Karnataka, noting that the al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) terror group is planning attacks in the region.
The 26th report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team concerning the IS, the al-Qaeda and associated individuals and entities said that the AQIS operates under the Taliban umbrella from the Nimruz, Helmand and Kandahar provinces of Afghanistan.
In May 2019, the terror group (also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh) had claimed to have established a new “province" in India. The dreaded outfit, through its Amaq News Agency, had said that the Arabic name of the new branch is “Wilayah of Hind" (India Province).
However, a senior Jammu and Kashmir police officer had rejected the claim.
Previously, the IS attacks in Kashmir were linked to its so-called Khorasan Province branch, which was set up in 2015 to cover “Afghanistan, Pakistan and nearby lands", reported news agency PTI.
According to a report published in India Today, a resident of Kerala’s Kasaragod had on July 10, 2016 approached the state police saying that his 30-year-old son Abdul Rashid along with his wife Ayisha and their child were missing for over a month after they left for Mumbai. As the probe initiated, it was found that this was not the only case where a couple was untraceable from the same locality.
As investigation gathered pace, it was found that these people were ISIS recruits who had left India to join the ISIS. A Delhi-based 29-year-old woman named Yasmin Mohammed Zahid was intercepted in 2017 with her child at Delhi airport before boarding a flight to Afghanistan as she was accused of supporting ISIS activities in India.
On further probe, it was revealed that a group of 21 Indians had left for Afghanistan to join ISIS—Khorasan.
INDIAN AGENCIES KEEP STRICT VIGIL ON ISIS ACTIVITIES
With arrests of people with growing interests in ISIS, the Indian agencies have kept a strict vigil of movement of suspected people. At least four of these women, including Ayisha, are reportedly in Afghan prisons after their husbands were killed in Afghanistan.
According to India Today report, these women along with some ISIS fighters surrendered in 2019 and have been in prison since then.
(with inputs from AFP and PTI)
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