New Delhi, Oct 5 — The Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), which has found a new friend in the Pakistani establishment, is set to step up attacks against Deobandi organisations that are supportive of the Afghan Taliban.
While there have been such attacks by the ISKP in the last couple of years, intelligence inputs suggest that these incidents are likely to go up manyfold.
An official said that when the ISKP began attacks on Deobandi organisations, political parties and scholars, it had spoken about ideological differences.
“The ISKP says that the South Asian Deobandi Hanafi jurisprudence is flawed and an illegitimate interpretation of Islam. The ISKP has very often called such institutions apostates,” the official said.
An Intelligence Bureau official said that the ISKP now has the backing of the Pakistani establishment.
The ISKP is being used by Pakistan to fight its battle against the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
“Moreover, the Pakistani establishment is at loggerheads with the Afghan Taliban. The establishment would encourage ISKP attacks on institutes that are sympathetic to the Afghan Taliban,” the IB official said.
The main target for the ISKP in Pakistan would continue to be the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F). This organisation openly advocates in favour of the Afghan Taliban.
In 2023, the ISKP carried out a deadly suicide attack at a JUI-F political rally in Bajaur district, killing nearly 60 people. In the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) region, the ISKP has allegedly murdered JUI-F local leaders.
Another official said that the ISKP would also target Deobandi Seminaries or Madrasas. These seminaries support the Afghan Taliban and hence have come under the radar of the ISKP, the official said.
Pakistan observers say that the intention of the ISKP is to erode the legitimacy of the Taliban network.
The attacks are carried out to send out a message that the Taliban cannot protect parties and institutions that are in their favour. Further, the ISKP is also in a battle with the TTP courtesy of the Pakistan establishment.
Pakistan, on the other hand, wants the TTP defeated. They have also been attempting to topple the Afghan Taliban regime in Afghanistan ever since they stopped looking eye-to-eye. In a nutshell, what the ISKP has undertaken to weaken the TTP and Afghan Taliban fits well into Pakistan’s scheme of things, the experts say.
When the ISKP was initially set up in Afghanistan, it treated Pakistan as a sworn enemy. Attacks were focused on hitting the establishment directly in Pakistan. At that time, the ISKP exploited the faults in the Pakistani intelligence systems. There were calls to upgrade Human Intelligence (HUMINT) to tackle the ISKP problem.
Security officials say a lot changed after the tensions soared between Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban.
Islamabad has very often accused the Afghan Taliban, without proof, of supporting the TTP and allowing it to use Afghan soil to launch attacks on Pakistan.
The battle between the TTP and Pakistani security forces did not shape up the way Islamabad would have hoped. Instead, in all recent battles, the TTP has had the upper hand and the security forces have incurred heavy losses.
By roping in the ISKP, Pakistan hoped that the TTP could be weakened.
The ISKP is bound to take advantage of this newfound relationship with Pakistan. It is using this to further its cause to weaken the Taliban network. Given all that is going on, attacks on Taliban friendly institutions by the ISKP are something that Pakistan would not mind, an official said.