A senior Taliban cleric known for his fiery speeches against the Islamic State (IS) was killed Thursday at his madrassa in the Afghan capital in a suicide attack claimed by the jihadist group, like reported by thedefensepost.com.

Rahimullah Haqqani, who had recently spoken publicly in favor of girls being allowed to attend school, had survived at least two previous assassination attempts — including one in Pakistan in October 2020.

“The madrassa of Sheikh Rahimullah was targeted today and as a result he and one of his brothers were martyred,” Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran told AFP, adding that three others were wounded in the blast.

Zadran had earlier said that only Haqqani was killed and four others wounded.

Government spokesman Bilal Karimi confirmed his death “in an attack carried out by a cowardly enemy,” but did not offer further details.

Hours later, IS claimed the attack on its telegram channels, saying the bomber had detonated his explosive vest inside the office of the cleric.

Haqqani was one of the most “prominent advocates for the Taliban and one of the biggest of them who incited to fight” IS, jihadist monitoring group SITE said, translating a statement from IS.

Taliban sources said that although he held no official position, Haqqani was an influential figure who had taught many of the group’s members over the years.

Scores of Taliban officials took to social media to express their condolences.

“You have fulfilled your responsibility. Destiny cannot be prevented, but the Muslim community has been orphaned,” tweeted Mobin Khan, a former spokesman for the Kabul police.

Haqqani was known for angry speeches against IS, who have claimed several attacks in Afghanistan since the Taliban’s return to power in August last year.

In recent months, he also backed the right of girls to attend school.

“There is no justification in sharia to say female education is not allowed. No justification at all,” he told the BBC in an interview in May.

Since seizing power a year ago, the Taliban have imposed harsh restrictions on girls and women to comply with their austere vision of Islam.

They have not allowed secondary schools for girls to reopen in most of the country.

Assam Police and Central agencies on Thursday arrested 11 people, including a Madrassa teacher, for alleged links to terror organizations Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) and the Bangladesh-based Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), like reported by dnaindia.com.

In response to the arrests, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma remarked, “From yesterday to today, we have caught two Jihadi modules in the Assam districts of Barpeta and Morigaon and detained all the people connected with Jihadi modules.” This coordinated action with national police agencies was a collaborative effort, and we will learn a lot more from these arrests.”

“We have closed 700 government madrassas and now we have started general education in them. In one module, we caught a Madrassa teacher. All the children in those closed madrassas will be taken to the general schools,” he further said.

“Assam Police has detained 11 people from Morigaon, Barpeta, Guwahati, and Goalpara districts,” said GP Singh, Special DGP L&O, Border, Director V&AC, and Chief Anti-Rhino Poaching Task Force, Assam. They are linked to Islamic fundamentalism and have ties to global terror organizations such as AQIS and ABT. Further action is being taken in accordance with the law.”

According to the Assam Police, Mustafa alias Mufti Mustafa, who is an accused in the case, is a resident of Saharia Gaon in the Morigaon district, and an active member of the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) which is linked to Al Qaeda in Indian Sub-continent (AQIS).

He is an important financial conduit of the ABT module in India.

Along with Mustafa, police arrested Afsaruddin Bhuyan (39) from Morigaon, Abbas Ali (22) from Goalpara, Mehbubur Rehman alias Mehbub (member of Ansarullah Bangla Team), Jubair Khan (25), Rafiqul Islam (27), Dewan Hamidul Islam (20), Moinul Haque (42), Kajibur Hussain (37), Muzibaur Rahman (50), Shahanur Aslam and Sahjahan Ali (34).

A case (no 763/22) has been lodged at Barpeta police station under Section 120(b)/121/121(A) IPC read with Section 17/18/18(B)/19/20 UA(P) Act, 1967.

The police also seized numerous electronic devices and incriminating documents from detained persons. Further investigation and operations are underway.

Despite lingering concerns among some officials in Washington that Afghanistan is on its way to once again becoming a terrorist haven, recent U.S. defense and intelligence assessments seem to indicate that at least for now, groups like Islamic State and al-Qaida are not ready to use the country as a launch pad for attacks against the West, like reported by voanews.com.

The appraisal from U.S. Central Command, the Defense Intelligence Agency and others is part of a just-released report by the Defense Department Inspector General examining the potential threats emanating from Afghanistan following the U.S. withdrawal from the country six months ago.

It runs contrary to concerns voiced since October by top Pentagon officials, who warned IS-Khorasan could be ready to strike at the West and at the U.S. in as little as six months, with al-Qaida regenerating the same capacity in as little as a year.

“Both al-Qaida and ISIS-K have the intent to conduct external operations,” Colin Kahl, Defense Department undersecretary for policy, told the Senate Armed Services Committee at the time, using an acronym for Islamic State’s Afghan affiliate.

The new assessments agree the intent is still there, just that leaders from both terror groups have other priorities.

IS-Khorasan Province, as the IS affiliate is also known, in particular seems more focused on solidifying its support within Afghanistan instead of preparing to strike at enemies further afield.

“The DIA assessed that ISIS-K is prioritizing attacks within Afghanistan over external operations,” the report said, noting a series of attacks against Taliban security checkpoints, as well as a deadly attack in November at a military hospital in Kabul that killed at least 25 people and wounded more than 50.

“ISIS-K’s targeted attacks on critical infrastructure highlighted the Taliban regime’s inability to provide basic security and worked to delegitimize the Taliban with the local population,” the report said.

It added that the DIA assessed IS-Khorasan “has probably exploited anti-Taliban sentiment and governance shortfalls to boost its recruitment, especially among marginalized populations.”

The report also warned that the group “maintains connections to fighters from countries across Central and South Asia, probably making the group a threat to U.S. interests in those countries.”

Intelligence shared by United Nations member states for a report issued earlier this month warned that IS-Khorasan has almost doubled in size since the U.S. withdrawal to nearly 4,000 fighters, and that the group again controls limited territory in the eastern part of the country.

Taliban officials have launched several efforts to crack down on IS-Khorasan, though a number of analysts have noted the various operations have met with limited success.

The same U.N. member states warned that al-Qaida, which has a longer history in Afghanistan, has enjoyed a “significant boost” since the U.S. withdrawal, noting “some of its closest sympathizers within the Taliban now occupy senior positions in the new de facto Afghan administration.”

The inspector general report, however, says U.S. agencies believe the Taliban are still keeping al-Qaida officials somewhat isolated.

“The Taliban has not permitted al-Qaida members to play a significant role in its so-called “interim government” and will likely aim to prevent al-Qaida attacks on the United States as it attempts to gain international legitimacy,” the report states, citing CENTCOM and the DIA.

But U.S. officials also assess that Taliban leaders are in no rush to sever ties with the terror group, despite their assurances to Washington as part of the Doha Agreement.

“The Taliban very likely will allow al-Qaida elements in Afghanistan to maintain a low profile within the country to preserve legacy relationships and avoid upsetting the most militant Islamic elements within the Taliban,” according to the inspector general report.

U.N. officials estimate the al-Qaida core has several dozen officials living in Afghanistan, including the group’s leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent, a key affiliate, is thought to have up to 400 fighters in Afghanistan, some embedded with Taliban units.

Pakistan said security forces had successfully repulsed overnight militant attacks on two army bases in southwestern Baluchistan province that killed seven soldiers and 15 assailants.

Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said in a recorded video message that a clearance operation was underway in Nushki and Panjgur districts, where the raids took place late Wednesday.

“The terrorists were repulsed from both places… As of this moment, four or five people [assailants] in Panjgur are surrounded by security forces and will be neutralized soon,” Ahmed said.

A military statement issued later confirmed the clashes also injured four soldiers. “As per initial investigation, intelligence agencies have intercepted communications between terrorists and their handlers in Afghanistan and India,” the statement said.

A separatist militant group known as Baluch Liberation Army took responsibility for staging the coordinated raids, claiming its so-called suicide squad stormed the Pakistani paramilitary forces’ camps and inflicted heavy casualties on them.

The authenticity of the claim could not be verified from independent sources, as separatists often issue inflated details for such attacks.

Wednesday’s almost simultaneous militant raids came a week after dozens of heavily armed men linked to another outlawed separatist outfit, known as the Baluchistan Liberation Front, assaulted a military post in the province’s Kech district.

That attack killed 10 Pakistani soldiers while one attacker was killed in retaliatory fire and the rest managed to escape, according to officials.

Two days after the deadly insurgent raid, a bomb attack in another district killed three paramilitary forces and wounded eight others.

Baluchistan, rich with natural gas and minerals, has for years experienced insurgent attacks, but the violence has surged dramatically in recent weeks.

Pakistani officials allege Baluch insurgents receive support and funding from rival India, charges Indian officials deny. Baluch militants are believed to have established bases in neighboring Iran for mounting attacks in Baluchistan.

The province also borders Afghanistan, where Pakistani officials say Baluch militants have their sanctuaries.

The overnight attacks came hours before Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan left for Beijing to attend the opening of the Winter Olympics Games.

In a statement on Twitter, Khan paid tributes to security forces for defeating the attacks.

China has invested billions of dollars in infrastructure projects in the province and elsewhere in Pakistan as part of Beijing’s global Belt and Road Initiative.

Officials in both countries say the increase in militant violence is aimed at undermining the multibillion-dollar megaproject known as the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, which includes roads, power projects and ports in the South Asian nation.

The corridor aims to link the Chinese-operated Pakistani deep-water Arabian Sea Gwadar port to China’s landlocked western Xinjiang border region.

The stepped-up separatist violence comes as the outlawed Pakistani Taliban, known as the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, have also intensified attacks across the country, mainly targeting security forces.

The Afghan Taliban have executed over 100 members of the now-defunct Afghan government, with a majority of those killed consisting of security forces personnel and Afghan employees of Western military forces. This information is included in a confidential report by the United Nations Political Mission in Afghanistan, which was produced earlier this month.

The Taliban completed their swift take-over of Afghanistan on August 15 of last year. On that day, they entered the Afghan capital Kabul, facing almost no resistance by the Afghan National Army and the country’s security forces. Shortly afterwards, senior Afghan officials pledged that their regime would extend a “general amnesty” to government employees, including Afghans who worked with the United States-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

But according to a confidential report produced earlier this month by the United Nations, the Taliban have executed at least 100 Afghan former government employees since taking power. The report was authored by staff of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), which is the Afghan branch of the United Nations’ Political Mission office. Established in 2002, the UNAMA is among the very few international bodies that have remained on the ground in Afghanistan since the Taliban took control the country.

The report was produced for the United Nations Security Council. According to the Associated Press, which accessed a copy of the report, it contains “credible allegations” that most of those who were executed did not receive even a rudimentary form of trial. Instead, their deaths were the result of “extrajudicial killings”, which were carried out “by the Taliban or its affiliates”. In addition to those killings, the United Nations report contains “credible allegations” of at least 50 extrajudicial killings of alleged members of the Islamic State-Khorasan Province. The Taliban have been engaged in a brutal war against the Islamic State branch in Afghanistan since 2015.

The report also details what it describes as systematic violent actions by Taliban against civil society activists. These include enforced disappearances, temporary arrests and detentions, physical beatings, as well as systematic threats and various forms of intimidation issued against growing numbers of Afghans. A substantial portion of the targets of these activities are former members of Afghanistan’s security forces and ISAF employees, according to the report.

A band of suspected Islamic State militants are on the run in Pakistan after escaping a police raid that killed six other members of the group, officials said according to easterneye.biz.

Counterterrorism police said in a statement they had stormed a hideout in the southwestern city of Quetta on Saturday and killed six militants, but “around four to five managed to escape”.

A senior police official speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP that “teams are now raiding different areas to arrest those who escaped”.

Among the dead was Asghar Sumalani, a junior commander in the regional chapter of Islamic State-Khorasan. He had a two million rupee ($11,400) bounty on his head.

Pakistani officials have long played down the presence of Daesh in their country.

But the group has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks, including the slaying of 11 miners from the minority Shiite Hazara community last year.

Some of the miners were beheaded after being kidnapped from a remote coal mine in the mountainous Machh area, 60 kilometres (37 miles) southeast of Quetta.

Daesh has deep roots in several provinces in eastern Afghanistan along the porous border with Pakistan.

The group carried out a suicide bombing at Kabul airport in August, killing scores including 13 US service members, as the Taliban retook Afghanistan.

Last week Pakistani army Major General Babar Iftikhar told reporters that “Pakistan Daesh is not very active”, in response to concerns that the threat from the group is rising.

The future army of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) will include a special battalion of suicide attackers, according to a spokesperson from the Taliban regime, like reported by vice.com.

Zabiullah Mujahid, the IEA’s deputy minister of information and culture, told Radio Azadi that the suicide unit will be active under the Ministry of Defense and will be part of the Taliban’s special forces.

The declaration follows previous, unconfirmed reports that the Taliban had formed a battalion of suicide bombers to help fight and prevent border conflicts, particularly at the Afghanistan-Tajikistan border in the northeastern Badakhshan province. Mullah Nisar Ahmad Ahmadi, deputy governor of Badakhshan, told media in October that the battalion was named Lashkar-e-Mansoori, or “Mansoor army,” and was the same as the one that would conduct suicide attacks targeting the security forces of the previous Afghan government, as well as their Western allies.

Ahmadi further claimed that the suicide bomber battalion was instrumental to the Taliban’s victory over the United States and its subsequent takeover of Afghanistan.

“The defeat of the U.S. would not be possible if not for this battalion,” he said. “These brave men would wear explosive waistcoats and would detonate the U.S. bases in Afghanistan. These are people with literally no fear who devote themselves for the consent of Allah.”

Suicide attacks have become a key military tactic for the Taliban, who first embraced the practice in 2003 as they launched an insurgency campaign against U.S. forces. According to a 2021 study, the group has since claimed more suicide bombings than any other terrorist organisation in history.

“[Suicide bombings are] very important [to the Taliban], because this was one of their main instruments in harassing the U.S. and allied forces and inflicting fatalities,” Amin Saikal, adjunct professor of social sciences at the University of Western Australia and former Director of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies, told VICE World News.

By declaring the formation of an official suicide battalion, Saikal explained, IEA’s Taliban rulers are sending a firm message to the U.S. and its allies: “‘If you are going to continue the pressure on us … then we will be able to unleash our suicide bombers against you.’”

“This [suicide corps] is very much a defensive force; a deterrent force, to basically deter any internal hostilities or external aggression towards the Taliban,” said Saikal. “They are basically sending a signal to opposition inside Afghanistan, and opposition outside the country, that if you are going to destabilise our rule in the country, and if you are not really going to come to terms with us, and you engage in hostile actions towards us, then we will be prepared to make use of such a force in order to counter your opposition and your aggression.”

Other experts have highlighted the problems posed by the Taliban’s ongoing embrace and praise of suicide attacks, especially as the new and untested government seeks to unite the Afghan population and curry favour with the international community, which is crucial to fend off an accelerating economic and humanitarian crisis. In the weeks and months following the fall of Kabul, the Taliban government – which is still yet to gain official recognition from any other nation – was eager to show a more moderate face to the global community, reshaping its image and casting itself as a peaceful and diplomatic improvement on the old model.

But as William Maley, emeritus professor of diplomacy at the Australian National University, told VICE World News, Mujahid’s announcement of an official suicide corps “highlights the naïveté of the suggestion that there had emerged a ‘Taliban 2.0′, different from the version of the Taliban that was on display between their emergence in 1994 and their overthrow in 2001.”

Saikal agreed. “I think this will be very roundly condemned,” he told VICE World News. “No country will be prepared to recognise or give any credibility to a military force that includes a suicide brigade.”

The Taliban is not the only group that is deploying suicide bombers – even within Afghanistan. In late August, as Western forces were evacuating Afghanistan and thousands of civilians were desperately attempting to flee the country, a militant from Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) detonated a suicide bomb at Hamid Karzai Internatiional Airport, killing himself and nearly 200 others.

More recently, on December 23, Kabul police said they shot dead a would-be suicide bomber outside Kabul’s main passport office as about 200 Taliban fighters lined up for travel documents. The attack was one of several launched against the Taliban since their return to power, most of which have been claimed by the local chapter of the Islamic State.

Saikal said it’s possible that the Taliban will use some of its suicide bombers against Islamic State targets. Maley, however, was less certain.

“It is not clear against which organised enemies a Taliban campaign of suicide bombing might be directed,” he said. “More worrying is the likelihood that the Taliban, in no position to win generalised normative support (‘legitimacy’), will resort to high-level coercion against ordinary Afghans to ensure compliance with Taliban demands.”

The Taliban’s dramatic takeover of the Nimruz Province’s of Afghanistan on August 6, 2021 which finally forced the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to flee the nation on 15 August, 2021 has raised severe concerns of security and regional instability in Central Asia, like reported by eurasiareview.com.

Though the Taliban has assured the Central Asian Republic’s that no organisation will attack neighbouring nations or engage in battle along the borders but the high level of poverty, human rights violations, and corruption in most of the Central Asian Republic’s raises the concerns of the spill over effects of the ongoing transition.

The events of Afghanistan have a wider regional impact due to its strategic location which connects the Arab and Persian region with Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 is marked as a critical point in the geopolitics of the region. The Afghan jihad, which was allegedly planned and funded by the US, Pakistan and Arab Gulf countries was one of the major repercussions of the Soviet invasion. Though Afghan jihad was successful in halting Soviet advances, it eventually led to the emergence of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda which caught the international spotlight.

With concerns of the Taliban’s revival, the Central Asian terror organisations relaunched their operations with the help of radicals. This period was marked with an increase in armed fighting along the Afghan-Central Asian Republic border. By 2013, 3,000 IMU and IJU fighters were in the ranks of al-Qaeda and the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, working closely with the Taliban (TTP). These terror groups used the Af-Pak area as a base between 2008 and 2018 and carried out 19 terror attacks across the CARs, killing 138 people, mostly in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. According to a recent UN study, around 10,000 foreign militants from Central Asia, Pakistan, and China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) are present in Afghanistan which are majorly are in the ranks of the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and the Islamic State in the Khorasan Province (ISKP). The presence of Central Asian terrorist groups in Afghanistan such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), the Islamic Jihad Union (IJU), Jamaat Ansarullah, and others pose the danger of rise in terrorist activities.

Religion and Islamist groups in Central Asia
Cultural ties and religious networks with the Central Asian region, in addition to geography proximity have shaped the geopolitics of Afghanistan. Central Asian states are strongholds of moderate and traditional Islam as compared to other Islamic governments and radical Islamic groups in the region have limited powers. The Muslims in Central Asia are Sunnis of the Hanafi School of Islamic Jurisprudence, which hold the most liberal views among Sunni Islam’s four schools of law. Despite the widespread use of the terms “radical” and “militant” Islam to refer to these groups, Islamist movements in Central Asia are far from consistent. Some extreme Islamic groups consider jihad purely as a military endeavour and violence as a legitimate means of influencing politics in Muslim countries while some do not us force in their activities.

The Adolat, or justice movement group, originated in the Fergana Valley’s Uzbek region and was one of the first extreme Islamic movements. This densely populated region, which is divided officially between Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan, has emerged as the epicentre of Central Asia’s Islamic revival. The leaders of the Adolat movement advocated for the establishment of an Islamic state in Uzbekistan as a way to address the country’s widespread socioeconomic issues. The movement’s commanders fled to Tajikistan and fought in the Tajik Civil War (1992-1997). The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), which was responsible for a series of deadly attacks and raids across Central Asia, arose from the previous Adolat leadership. The IMU took shape in Uzbekistan in the summer of 1999 to overthrow the country’s secular government, but it eventually broadened its purpose to establish a regional Islamic caliphate.

Hizb ut-Tahrir is another Islamist movement with a substantial and expanding presence in Central Asia. It is a global movement that promotes Muslim unity through a pan-Islamist platform in contrast to the IMU, ETIM, and JaK. Hizb ut-Tahrir, on the other hand, adapted its ideology to the needs of locals in Central Asia and went on to achieve regional success. Though all Central Asian nations have outlawed Hizb ut-Tahrir and included them to their lists of “terrorist” organisations, Hizb ut-Tahrir asserts that it does not support violence in order to achieve its political goals.

There are some local variations of international Islamist groups, such as Akromiya (also known as Akramiya), which was created in 1996 in Andijan, Uzbekistan’s fourth-largest city in the Fergana Valley. The ideas and organisation of Akromiya are comparable to those of moderate Islamic movements around the world, such as the Nurcu and Fetullah Gulen movements in Turkey. Its founders focussed on Andijan as establishing an Islamic state throughout the country was impracticable. The Central Asian Republics (CAR) s’ security and stability will be significantly impacted by porous borders with Afghanistan and reinvigorated terror groups. Many radical and militant Islamic movements have resurfaced in Central Asia with moderate and traditional Islamic influences. The military campaigns against the Taliban and Al Qaeda post the 9/11 attacks in the United States has increased the strategic importance of the region due to the likelihood of terrorism and Islamic radicalization in the region.

International terrorist and religious-extremist organisations such as the Islamic Movement of Turkestan have established a stronghold in Afghanistan, posing a severe threat to the region’s countries’ security and stability. As regional governments fought to eradicate non-state-sanctioned religious groupings, their internal circumstances became increasingly precarious as these movements went underground and politicised.

According to the United Nations Security Council, there are various terrorist groups operating in Afghanistan, including indigenous ethnic Uzbeks and Tajiks as well as imported Uzbeks and Tajiks. Jamaat Ansarullah is primarily made up of Tajiks and is led by a Tajik national. Dushanbe has been pressing the Taliban to incorporate Tajik minorities in the new government on a regular basis. Both Uzbekistan and Tajikistan saw an increase in terrorism-related arrests in September 2021, including both international and domestic aspects. There were rising cases of threats across the border and infrequent arrests of labour migrants purportedly connected in terrorist organisations or persons within the country.

Disenfranchised ethnic minorities in Afghanistan, such as Tajiks and Uzbeks, have joined the Taliban’s struggle, contributing to the Taliban’s recent victories and growth. The authoritarian nature of Central Asian Republics with a lack of legitimacy, corruption and perceptions provide a fertile ground for propagation of terrorist groups. A generation of young adults in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, faced with a lack of opportunity and widespread corruption, are questioning their governments’ leadership – particularly in Uzbekistan, which has acquired greater religious freedom under President Shavkhat Mirzioiyev.

Terrorist organisations located in the Af-Pak region, such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), and Hizb-u-Tahrir (HUT), sought to destabilise Central Asian regimes. While establishing a Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) in Tashkent in 2002, the SCO’s primary goal was to ensure regional stability. The SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group was established in 2005, prompting the SCO to hold a separate summit on Afghanistan in Moscow in 2009. The summit witnessed the participation of the UN Secretary-General, representatives from the US, EU, NATO, OSCE, CSTO, and the OIC. With security challenges shifting back to Afghanistan, particularly following the US withdrawal, the SCO would be preparing up to deal with the Afghan spill over to Central Asia.

Response of the Central Asian Republics
Central Asia’s general response to the Taliban is difficult, as the region’s viewpoints are far from uniform. Tajik President Emomali Rahmon has refused to negotiate with the Taliban, warning that Dushanbe will not recognise the new administration in Kabul if it damages the interests of ethnic Tajiks and other ethnic minorities in Afghanistan. Uzbekistan has taken a cautious approach to its concerted diplomatic and business engagements under the leadership of President Shavkhat Mirzioiyev’s elected in 2016. Trade and economic relations with Afghanistan were promoted offering new economic and trade potential .Kazakhstan, which does not share a border with Afghanistan, is sticking to its fabled multi-vector foreign policy by holding meetings with senior Russian government officials to discuss a coordinated response, as well as hosting temporary UN offices that were previously in Afghanistan. Turkmenistan whose hydrocarbon export economy is in shambles, is seeking Russian and Chinese security support for its 700-kilometer desert frontier with Afghanistan.

The latest catastrophic turn of events in Afghanistan has heightened concerns of cross border terrorism for Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan which share a 2,387-kilometer porous border with Afghanistan. Thousands of Afghan military troops and civilians have reportedly travelled into Central Asia in an attempt to flee the Taliban’s brutality since the military onslaught began. The Central Asian Republics were forced to reach out to the Taliban due to the deteriorating security situation and the emergence of emerging Central Asian terror organisations. On July 22, Tajikistan mobilised 100,000 active military personnel, 130,000 reserve officers and troops, and dispatched 20,000 security forces to the Afghan border. To avoid the tensions in its immediate neighbourhood from escalating into a full-fledged battle, Russia has dispatched military equipment to the Tajik-Afghan border under the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO)

Tajikistan has also expressed its concern over the Taliban’s expanding influence in the region. Tajikistan is concerned by the revival of the Tajik terrorist group Jamaat Ansarullah, also known as the “Tajik Taliban” in Afghanistan, which took over the strategic northern border by the Taliban. The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) has relocated Russian military assets to the Tajik-Afghan border (CSTO)to check the tensions in its immediate neighbourhood from escalating into a full-fledged battle.

Russia conducted military drills with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan at 20 kilometres from the Afghan border to showcase its military preparedness in the event of a Taliban misadventure or any other terror group from the region. The Central Asian Republic leaders held a meeting in Turkmenistan on August 6 to discuss the regional concerns in the wake of Afghanistan’s escalating security crisis. They discussed the existence of Central Asian terror groups within Afghanistan’s borders and highlighted their concern about Afghanistan’s security.

The Central Asian countries have been strengthening their diplomatic ties and domestic security to deal with the security concern in the neighbouring Afghanistan. The recent Taliban takeover has posed significant political and security hurdles to Central Asian region. The Afghanistan crisis has exposed large swaths of the population to more extremist forms of Islam. Taliban’s jihadist ideology may inspire domestic Islamic groups to become more active in the region, as happened in the 1990s when the Afghan mujahideen’s propaganda spread quickly throughout Central Asia. Political changes in Afghanistan with the control of Taliban has a spill over impact across Central Asia (CAR). The condition of affairs in Afghanistan, which has been unravelling since the Taliban’s takeover has prompted Central Asian countries to rethink their relations in order to avoid mutual terrorization and work together to stabilise the region.

The Taliban has expanded its shadowy war against the Islamic State branch in Afghanistan, deploying hundreds more fighters to this eastern province in an increasingly violent fight and critical test of the group’s counterterrorism abilities after the U.S. troop withdrawal, like reported by stripes.com.

More than 1,300 additional Taliban fighters have been deployed to Nangahar province in the past month with orders to increase the tempo of operations, according to Taliban security officials. Taliban night raids against suspected Islamic State-Khorasan members are on the rise, and many of the hundreds arrested have disappeared or turned up dead, according to Jalalabad residents and Taliban fighters.

“The fight is difficult, and yes sometimes it is brutal, but we have to eradicate Daesh not just for Afghanistan, but for the entire world,” said Qari Nurullah Fateh, a Taliban fighter under the group’s intelligence wing in Jalalabad. Daesh is the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State commonly used in Afghanistan. “If someone doesn’t surrender to us, we kill them.”

Fateh’s unit carries out multiple search operations for Islamic State suspects in Jalalabad most nights from sunset until early morning prayers. Previously, the fighters would only leave base once or twice a week. Fateh estimated that seven to 10 Islamic State suspects are arrested in Jalalabad every week and about six are killed.

The Taliban crackdown has sent shock waves through the province and is emerging in Islamic State recruitment propaganda calling on Nangahar residents to rise up and resist. It is unclear how many new fighters have joined the Islamic State’s ranks, but since the Taliban takeover the group has strengthened, become more active and expanded its presence to nearly every Afghan province, according to United Nations assessments.

The wave of Islamic State attacks here and across Afghanistan is the first sustained challenge to the Taliban’s grip on security since the group took control of the country in August. But the escalating fight in Nangahar risks overstretching limited Taliban resources and further alienating many Afghans.

The Islamic State began attacking Jalalabad within weeks of the Taliban takeover. Local Taliban commanders initially responded by killing several accused collaborators and hanging their bodies along main roads and at busy intersections.

“This was a very effective way to respond,” said Fateh, the Taliban fighter in Jalalabad. “It was a lesson to the people that this is what happens if you join Daesh. We wanted to show them the consequences.” Two other elite Taliban fighters confirmed Fateh’s account.

“Myself, I strung up two of the bodies,” Fateh said, estimating other Taliban fighters hung about 40 more. Dozens of accused collaborators were beheaded. He said the punishments were carried out in accordance with Islamic law and were approved by Taliban provincial leadership.

But since the brutal killings, violence has only increased, according to data collected by local health officials. And some Jalalabad residents and former Afghan government officials warn that the Taliban’s approach to restoring order will fan Islamic State recruitment efforts.

Community leaders in Nangahar have pleaded for the Taliban to end the killings, warning “otherwise we cannot stop our youth from joining the [Islamic State] and the beginning of a very brutal era,” said Abdul Sayed, a London-based researcher of extremist organizations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, citing statements released via public WhatsApp groups.

At a recent news conference, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid downplayed the threat, saying the Islamic State does not have any support among Afghans and the group has “largely been dealt with.”

But Khalil Hamraz, the spokesman for the Taliban’s directorate of intelligence, acknowledged at the same conference that the Taliban’s military takeover of the country inadvertently bolstered Islamic State ranks. Taliban attacks on prisons across the country freed jailed Islamic State members who now threaten security in Afghanistan, he said.

“During the victory of the Islamic Emirate, many Daesh prisoners unfortunately managed to escape,” he said, but in the months since, Taliban fighters have arrested about 600 Islamic State suspects and defused deadly explosives.

Islamic State fighters in Afghanistan are estimated to number between 2,000 and 3,500 – just a fraction of the approximately 70,000 fighters in the Taliban’s ranks.

The Taliban has engaged in battles with the Islamic State for years. In 2019, Taliban fighters helped clear much of Nangahar of Islamic State-held territory, in parallel with a massive U.S.-led operation in which the United States closely supported Afghan government forces with waves of airstrikes. U.S. officials said they did not partner with the Taliban but said Taliban-led offensives on the ground against the Islamic State were critical to its success.

Islamic State attacks across Afghanistan sharply declined the following year, but U.S. officials warned that the group could easily regroup if counterterrorism pressure isn’t applied after the U.S. withdrawal.

Orders to kill

Even with specialized equipment and elite counterterrorism units, U.S.-backed Afghan government forces struggled for years to control Nangahar. Home to formidable terrain, profitable smuggling routes and mineral deposits close to Kabul, the province is key real estate for militant groups looking to move fighters and munitions between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

“These Taliban fighters are not familiar with the province, and they have no way to check the intelligence they receive about [Islamic State] targets,” said a Jalalabad resident and former civil society activist, who, like others in this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals. “So they just go after anyone they suspect, kill them and say that person was Daesh.”

He said he knows dozens of families whose homes were raided and who cannot find their loved ones. Those who are imprisoned by the Taliban and released, he said, often endured days of torture.

Fateh, the Taliban fighter assigned to the group’s intelligence wing in Jalalabad, said the top Taliban intelligence commander for Nangahar, Mohammad Bashir, signs off on all targets before a raid is launched and has the final say in all sentences delivered to captured suspects.

“Dr. Bashir tells us Daesh is like a virus that will not just infect Afghanistan, but other countries.” Fateh said, referring to the 45-year-old commander. “So the less dangerous people we bring to prison, but the most dangerous are the ones we have orders to kill on the spot.”

Bashir declined multiple interview requests. Bilal Karimi, a deputy Taliban spokesman, would not comment on whether a Taliban court has ruled that accused Islamic State members should be hung in public or beheaded.

“However, I can say many of the [Islamic State] members have been killed in armed clashes,” he said.

Most suspects detained for trial are brought to Jalalabad’s intelligence compound, Fateh said. If they are sentenced to death, they are executed and their bodies are dumped in the street outside the building, he said. In other cases, accused Islamic State members are walked into an open field on Jalalabad’s outskirts and shot.

“We always inform the neighborhood elder so they can tell the family where to collect the body for burial,” he said. “We never desecrate the dead. That is wrong. It’s against Islam.”

Violence spikes

Muhammad Tahir Mubaris, who commands a Taliban unit that was recently moved from Ghazni to Jalalabad, said extensive networks of Taliban informants will ultimately help the group achieve what the United States couldn’t: the complete defeat the Islamic State in Afghanistan.

“It’s because the people trust us. Daesh has no support here,” he said, leading a patrol convoy through central Jalalabad traffic on a recent day this month. Unlike the United States, he said, Taliban raids don’t alienate local populations.

“We saw how the Americans conducted night raids. It showed us the wrong way to fight,” he said, referring to U.S.-backed operations that drew criticism from human rights groups. “We don’t just break into a house and destroy everything. This is our country; we respect the culture.”

The approach does not appear to be working. While the Taliban’s military takeover ended decades of war for most of Afghanistan, violence in Nangahar has escalated with near-daily attacks claimed by the Islamic State. And some Jalalabad residents describe the Taliban raids as more brutal than those carried out by the United States and its Afghan allies.

Few Taliban fighters are trained or have experience conducting precision operations in urban areas. After more than two decades of fighting a guerrilla war, the force is still adjusting to maintaining security during peacetime. Exponentially increasing the number of operations without also expanding intelligence capabilities raises the risk that civilians will be mistaken for Islamic State members.

Already, the number of civilians caught in the crossfire has surged in Nangahar. Across the province, twice as many people were killed and injured by roadside bombs, clashes and targeted killings compared to the month before the government fell, according to a senior member of the provincial health department. And in Jalalabad, the central hospital admitted more casualties of war in October than any other month this year, according to two senior doctors there.

“I can’t remember the last time the numbers of war wounded were this high,” said one of the doctors at Jalalabad’s main hospital who has worked in the city’s health sector for years.

Outside his office, the courtyard was full of dozens of families and groups of Taliban members waiting for news of relatives and comrades inside.

Thick metal pins poked out of a white gauze wrapping around Gulzada Osman’s right leg. This month he was knocked off his feet and sprayed with shrapnel after a passing Taliban pickup truck rolled over a roadside bomb not far from his home.

Taliban fighters responded with gunfire, he said. After suffering only minor injuries from the blast, Osman was then shot through his thigh. “My leg felt like it was burning, but when I looked down I just saw blood everywhere,” he said.

The explosive was probably placed by an Islamic State fighter or by someone paid by the group to target the Taliban, according to former local officials and analysts. Unlike recent bombings claimed by the militants elsewhere in Afghanistan, in Nangahar, Islamic State attacks are smaller in scale: roadside bombs targeting Taliban convoys and drive-by shootings of Taliban fighters stationed at checkpoints.

Islamic State attacks are expected to rise as the Taliban ramps up operations in Nangahar, according to the former Afghan security officials.

“The people are more than upset,” said one of the former officials of rising violence and civilian casualties. “Before the government collapse many thought the Taliban could be a better way. But if the fight continues like this, there will be a wave of people joining Daesh.”

The United Nations special envoy to Afghanistan has given a significant update on the Islamic State’s expansion within the country, like reported by asiaplustj.info.

The U.N. Special Representative Deborah Lyons on Wednesday delivered a bleak assessment of the situation following the Taliban takeover, saying that The Islamic State – Khorasan Province (ISKP), an affiliate of the Islamic State terror group, has grown and now appears present in nearly all 34 provinces.

She told the U.N. Security Council that ISKP had once been in a handful of provinces but are now in almost all of them.

“Once limited to a few provinces and the capital, ISKP now seems to be present in nearly all provinces, and increasingly active,” Lyons said, according to Reuters , before noting that the number of ISIS attacks had increased by more than 500% from this year compared to last.

She said there had been 334 ISIS attacks this year, compared to only 60 last year.

The Taliban “appears to rely heavily on extrajudicial detentions and killings” of ISIS-K members in order to prevent their continued growth, Lyons said, noting that they seem to be making “genuine efforts to present itself as a government.”

The Taliban now lead the country and have been doing so since mid-August, when they were able to overthrow Ashraf Ghani’s government and military, despite the incumbent government having the backing of the U.S. military.

Washington Examiner says the Taliban and ISIS are strong enemies and have fought since America’s withdrawal, though there are also concerns from Western countries that the Taliban could provide a safe harbor for ISIS and other terrorist groups to thrive.

The United States is hoping the Taliban can successfully fight off the Islamic State.

“We want the Taliban to succeed against ISIS-K,” State Department Special Representative Thomas West told reporters earlier this month. “When it comes to other groups, look, al Qaeda continues to have a presence in Afghanistan that we are very concerned about, and that is an issue of ongoing concern for us in our dialogue with the Taliban.”

The Islamic State – Khorasan Province (ISKP) is an affiliate of the Islamic State (IS) active in South Asia and Central Asia. Some media sources also use the terms ISK (or IS–K), ISISK (or ISIS–K), IS–KP or Daesh–Khorasan in referring to the group. ISKP has been active in Afghanistan and its area of operations includes Pakistan, Tajikistan and India where they claimed attacks, as well as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Bangladesh and China where individuals have pledged allegiance to it. The ISKP and Taliban consider each other enemies.

The group was created in January 2015 by disaffected Taliban in eastern Afghanistan, although its membership includes individuals from various countries notably Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and Myanmar. Its initial leaders, Hafiz Saeed Khan and Abdul Rauf Aliza, were killed by US forces in July 2016 and February 2015, respectively. Subsequent leaders have also been killed; its leader Abdullah Orokzai was captured in April 2020 by Afghanistan’s intelligence service.

ISKP has conducted numerous high-profile attacks against civilians mostly in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In July 2018, ISKP bombings killed 149 in Mastung, Pakistan. In May 2021, an ISKP bombing killed 90 in Kabul. In August 2021, ISKP killed 13 American military personnel and at least 169 Afghans during the U.S. evacuation of Kabul, which marked the highest number of U.S. military deaths in an attack in Afghanistan since 2011.