Taliban warn IS leader not to interfere in Afghanistan
KABUL: The Taliban on Tuesday warned the leader of the self-styled Islamic State group against waging a parallel insurgency in Afghanistan, after a string of defections and reported clashes with militants loyal to Islamic State (IS).
The Middle Eastern group, also known by its Arabic acronym Daesh, has never formally acknowledged having a presence in Afghanistan but fears are growing that the group is making inroads in the country.
In a letter addressed to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Taliban insisted that “jihad (holy war) against the Americans and their allies must be conducted under one flag and one leadership”.
“The Islamic Emirate (Taliban) does not consider the multiplicity of jihadi ranks beneficial either for jihad or for Muslims,” said the letter signed by the Taliban deputy leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor.
“Your decisions taken from a distance will result in (the IS) losing support of religious scholars, mujahideen... and in order to defend its achievements the Islamic Emirate will be forced to react,” it added.
The letter, published on the Taliban website in Pashto, Urdu, Arabic and Dari, did not elaborate on its threat.
The Taliban have seen defections in recent months— with some insurgents apparently adopting the IS flag to rebrand themselves as a more lethal force as Nato troops depart.
The two groups, which espouse different ideological strains of Sunni Islam, are believed to be arrayed against each other in Afghanistan's restive south, with clashes frequently reported.
Last week, local media reported pitched battles between the Taliban and supporters of IS in eastern Afghanistan, with casualties reported on both sides.
General John Campbell, the commander of Nato forces in the country, last month said the IS group was recruiting fighters in Afghanistan but they were not yet operational.
There have been fears of IS group making inroads in Afghanistan since US-led Nato forces ended their combat mission late last year, after 13 years of fighting the Taliban.
In February, a Nato drone strike killed Mullah Abdul Rauf Khadim, a former Taliban commander and Guantanamo detainee with suspected links to IS, in the volatile southern province of Helmand.
And in March Hafiz Waheed, a successor to Khadim, was killed along with nine others in the Sangin district of Helmand, according to the Afghan defence ministry.
It is not known whether the men had the official sanction of IS, which announced its presence in South Asia a year ago.
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Comments (8) Closed
Very soon there will be a civil war like situation, similar to the one in the days of Gulbuddin Hikmatyar, Mullah Rabbani and other islamic militant groups who wanted to control whole of Afghanistan but failed miserably. Its fall out will be felt in Pakistan and again there will be a new Zarb-e-azb and this will continue for decades. Muslim history is full of wars and as such nothing to worry. Let IS, Taliban , and any other group enter the ring and fight out.
Taliban and Daesh fighting turf war? That would solve many problems.
Things are heating up. Its not over. The ultimate goal cannot be described in these forums.
ISIS is an imported phenomena which was brought recently into Afghanistan by an "eastern" country with the help of a "western" country. That "western" country is the brain behind ISIS and got strong links with the "eastern" country. Read between the lines.
While no super power could penetrate effectively into Afghanistan, IS has successfully camped in restive Eastern Afghanistan. This shows that there forces much larger than IS supporting it to creates rifts in Taliban. Pakistan would be net loser in the game while India stands to gain substantially from this scheme; provided we let it work.
Why these forces are fighting against each other when their so-called goal is same i.e. to kill or be killed? Who are their supporters and financiers? And why they are bent upon extirpating the Muslim World? The bone of contention is the American intervention in the region. Their flawed policies have given birth to ISIS. Such groups feel oppressed by the west led by US. Resultantly,they have taken arms against the whole humanity just because of America as the latter did by invading Afghanistan just for the sake of a single person OBL for a crime Americans failed to produce any proof to the world. The same thing happened in Iraq which was attacked by the US on the pretext that the country has weapons of mass destruction. Despite the then UN's secretary general's report that there is no any evidence of lethal weapons in Iraq, Americans went ahead with war. And the then Secretary General had to face subsequent expulsion. Who is the producer of the contemporary scenario in the world?
So it is all about power then; so much for talking about Islam all these decades. Taliban, ISIS, etc. are all the same. They all need total destruction - for ever!
we as Pakistani so Dumb and stupid, sometime I just wonder we must be zombies all the miseries in the world have been thrown at us but we just too busy killing each other. Enough is Enough or is it?
Comments (8) Closed
Very soon there will be a civil war like situation, similar to the one in the days of Gulbuddin Hikmatyar, Mullah Rabbani and other islamic militant groups who wanted to control whole of Afghanistan but failed miserably. Its fall out will be felt in Pakistan and again there will be a new Zarb-e-azb and this will continue for decades. Muslim history is full of wars and as such nothing to worry. Let IS, Taliban , and any other group enter the ring and fight out.
Taliban and Daesh fighting turf war? That would solve many problems.
Things are heating up. Its not over. The ultimate goal cannot be described in these forums.
ISIS is an imported phenomena which was brought recently into Afghanistan by an "eastern" country with the help of a "western" country. That "western" country is the brain behind ISIS and got strong links with the "eastern" country. Read between the lines.
While no super power could penetrate effectively into Afghanistan, IS has successfully camped in restive Eastern Afghanistan. This shows that there forces much larger than IS supporting it to creates rifts in Taliban. Pakistan would be net loser in the game while India stands to gain substantially from this scheme; provided we let it work.
Why these forces are fighting against each other when their so-called goal is same i.e. to kill or be killed? Who are their supporters and financiers? And why they are bent upon extirpating the Muslim World? The bone of contention is the American intervention in the region. Their flawed policies have given birth to ISIS. Such groups feel oppressed by the west led by US. Resultantly,they have taken arms against the whole humanity just because of America as the latter did by invading Afghanistan just for the sake of a single person OBL for a crime Americans failed to produce any proof to the world. The same thing happened in Iraq which was attacked by the US on the pretext that the country has weapons of mass destruction. Despite the then UN's secretary general's report that there is no any evidence of lethal weapons in Iraq, Americans went ahead with war. And the then Secretary General had to face subsequent expulsion. Who is the producer of the contemporary scenario in the world?
So it is all about power then; so much for talking about Islam all these decades. Taliban, ISIS, etc. are all the same. They all need total destruction - for ever!
we as Pakistani so Dumb and stupid, sometime I just wonder we must be zombies all the miseries in the world have been thrown at us but we just too busy killing each other. Enough is Enough or is it?