Islamabad, Pakistan: In the post-Taliban interim government era, the death of Ayman al-Zawahiri on 31 July 2022 in a drone strike conducted by the United States to a recent video of Afghan Taliban commander planning terror attacks in Pakistan confirms that Afghan soil is harboring and nurturing global terrorism as linkages of terror attack in Moscow concert Hall with Afghanistan are also perceivable.
The weird silence of the Afghan government over the events mentioned above sows doubts that it knows the involvement of its commanders in helping to flourish global terrorist networking but does not want to take action against them.
Russia in a swift move has started questioning four men accused of possible linkages with the Moscow concert hall attack that killed at least 138 people and all of the suspects have some linkages with Afghanistan.
They were produced to Moscow’s Basmanny district court which allowed state police to remand the accused until 22 May 2024. The court released a video showing police officers bringing one of the suspects into the courtroom in handcuffs, as well as photographs of the same man sitting in a glass cage for defendants. Russian news agency TASS confirmed that all suspects are foreign nationals while some indirect official sources indicate that “some of the suspects are from Tajikistan” having linkages with Afghan Taliban and in contact with Ukraine. Kyiv and the United States deny any involvement of Ukraine in the Moscow Concert attack that was the deadliest in Russia since the early 2000s.
Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that the accused who were produced to the court for remand were arrested when they were trying to flee to Ukraine.
The Islamic State group also known as Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP) also known as “Daesh” through a Telegram post took responsibility for the attack stating “it carried out by four IS fighters armed with machine guns, a pistol, knives, and firebombs,” as part of “the raging war” with “countries fighting Islam”. A video lasting about a minute and a half has been posted on social media accounts typically used by Daesh.
From the death of Ayman al-Zawahiri to the Moscow Concert attack, it confirms that Afghanistan is still the nucleus of global terrorism
US media suggested that the United States “shared information with Russia about a planned terrorist attack in Moscow”. US media intelligence officials had been gathering information for months that suggested Daesh could mount a mass casualty attack in Russia, U.S. officials confirmed to NBC News.
Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP) having a stronghold in Afghanistan is one of many brand names of global terrorists and thousands of foot soldiers of splinter groups of Afghan Taliban and Tehrik e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) use this brand name for conducting attacks within Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan.
ISKP fighters claimed responsibility for the 2021 attacks outside Kabul airport that left at least 175 civilians dead, killed 13 US soldiers, and many dozens injured.
ISKP was also involved in an attack on a maternity ward in Kabul in May 2020 that killed 24 people, including women and infants. In November of that same year, the group attacked Kabul University, killing at least 22 teachers and students. It has been attacking the Hazara community (Shia Muslims) in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran since the year 2006–the same era when Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP) was formed allegedly with direct financial as well as operation support of Indian intelligence agencies for waging terrorism against Pakistan.
In September 2022, ISKP took responsibility for a deadly suicide bombing at the Russian embassy in Kabul. Last year, Iran blamed the group for two separate attacks on a major shrine in southern Shiraz – the Shah Cheragh – which killed at least 14 people and injured more than 40.
ISKP overlaps with the Afghan Taliban and TTP and Russia, Pakistan, and Iran are the main targets of the group
Amira Jadoon, the assistant professor at Clemson University in South Carolina and co-author of, “The Islamic State in Afghanistan and Pakistan: Strategic Alliances and Rivalries” while talking to Al-Jazeera claimed that Russia’s engagement in the global fight against ISIS and its affiliates marks Russia as a key adversary for ISIS/ISIS-K. She believes that ISKP has sent a message that it is a global terrorist group that can even launch attacks within Russian territory.
Sources in intelligence operations suggest that after an attack on the Russian Embassy in Kabul, Russian security agencies harmed ISKP ecosystems both in Russia and around its borders, specifically Central Asia and the Caucuses, and collaborated closely with Iran and Pakistan because Russia is clear that ISKP has a base camp in Afghanistan. It overlaps with the Afghan Taliban and TTP and Russia, Pakistan, and Iran are the main targets of ISKP.
International terrorism watchdogs indicate that ISKP in Afghanistan has grown in strength significantly and the land has become a breeding ground of global terrorism as it was in the early 90s. In the post-Taliban interim government era, Pakistan, Iran, Tajikistan, and global terrorism watchdogs are demanding Afghan interim government take measures against global terrorist outfits operating from Afghan soil but the Afghan interim government is not taking any responsibility rather claiming that no terrorists are living and using Afghanistan for launching attacks over neighboring countries. Now the spectrum of this Afghanistan-based networking has attacked as far as Moscow.
A video that appeared on social media on Sunday confirmed that Afghan Taliban have been planning and executing attacks on security forces along the Pak-Afghan border. The video again testified that Afghan territory is the hub of terrorists who are continuously attacking Pakistan’s soil.
In the video, the Afghan Tehreek Taliban Afghanistan (TTA) commander of the Dangar Algad region Yahya Hafiz Gul Bahadur is giving instructions to the terrorists of the group to attack the Pakistani posts. He is saying in the video that “according to the plan, there will be six rocket launchers and six assistants, two lasers and two assistants, and a sniper. All these mujahideen are ready on the orders of the Ameerul Momineen Sheikh Abadullah.”
Strangely, the Afghan interim government has not responded to this video until now. Pakistan has been continuously demanding the Afghan Interim government that the Kabul government should not allow terrorists to use its land but It has been proven time and again that the Afghan Interim government has no interest in controlling the infiltration of terrorists from Afghanistan into Pakistan. Several times in the past, Pakistan provided clear evidence of terrorism from Afghanistan.
