PRISTINA: Kosovo’s foreign minister and former premier Hashim Thaci says he received a death threat purportedly from the leader of the militant Islamic State (IS) group over his opposition to the extremist group.

“It was a death threat against me and my family,” Thaci said in an interview on Wednesday.

A Pristina news website this week reported details of a letter addressed to then-prime minister Thaci in late 2014, allegedly signed by IS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, calling on him to abandon Kosovo’s alignment with the West or face “great revenge”.

Thaci, who is now front-runner to become president of Muslim-majority Kosovo this year, confirmed that he had received a threatening letter from Baghdadi, saying he would “not step back or retreat from any threats” in tackling Islamic fundamentalism.

About 300 of Kosovo’s 1.8 million people have joined the jihadists’ frontlines in Iraq and Syria in recent years — the highest proportion of any European country’s population.

But there are now fewer than 70 still fighting, according to Kosovo’s government, which has made high-profile arrests of recruiters and returnee fighters and strengthened legislation against them.

On a recent visit to Pristina, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Kosovo had “set a powerful example” for the region but added: “It’s obvious that more needs to be done”.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2016