ISIL-K’s new leader heads India operations; may have earlier affiliation with Haqqani network: UN

United Nations, February 4

Global terror group Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant-Khorasan’s (ISIL-K) new leader Shihab al-Muhajir heads its operations in India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka and is said to have had an earlier affiliation with the dreaded Haqqani Network, according to a report of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The 12th report of the Secretary-General on the threat posed by ISIL (also known as ISIS and Da’esh) to international peace and security and the range of United Nations efforts in support of member states in countering the threat said that ISIL-K currently has 1,000-2,200 fighters in Afghanistan spread across several provinces.

“ISIL-K continued to demonstrate resilience in Afghanistan notwithstanding its degraded military capabilities, including in Nangarhar and Kunar provinces,” it said.

The report said although ISIL-K faces challenges in its ability to seize and hold significant territory in those provinces, it has claimed responsibility for a number of recent high-profile attacks, including the devastating attack on a maternity hospital in Kabul in May, the assault on Jalalabad city prison in August, an attack on Kabul University in November and the killing of a woman Afghan journalist in Nangarhar province in December.

“ISIL-K is currently assessed to have between 1,000 and 2,200 fighters in Afghanistan spread across several provinces and is expected to continue to target Kabul and provincial capitals in future attacks.

“Shihab al-Muhajir, announced as the group’s new leader in June 2020, reportedly heads ISIL operations in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and states in Central Asia. He is said to have had an earlier affiliation with and to maintain familial ties to the Haqqani network,” the UNSG’s report said.

The Haqqani network, which has the backing of elements within the Pakistani security establishment, is one of Afghanistan’s most experienced and sophisticated insurgent organisations, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based non-partisan, non-profit, public policy research organisation.

The Haqqani network maintains a safe haven in North Waziristan, Pakistan, across Afghanistan’s southeastern border, it said. The extremist group has been behind some of the deadliest attacks across Afghanistan against US interests in the war-torn country.

It said that online recruitment and radicalisation of ISIL sympathisers in South Asia continues to be a “concern, in particular through propaganda publications targeting followers, including in the Maldives and Sri Lanka”.

The Secretary General’s report said that ISIL also remains resilient in South-East Asia with a number of factions, in particular in the southern Philippines, giving special urgency to initiatives developed by authorities in the region, including the promotion of narratives to counter violent extremism online. PTI