LAHORE - Though no footprints of IS, also known as Daesh, have so far been found on Pakistan’s soil, in a bid to eliminate the thin possibilities of the terror outfit’s threat, neutralisation of TTP leadership in the east of Afghanistan is a must as it could be the only potential partner of the Middle Eastern terror organisation to revive itself after the severe military operations, suggest security services assessments.
Background interviews with members of the secret services sections dealing with terrorism suggest that cleansing Kunar and some other parts of Afghanistan of the remains of TTP at the earliest would eliminate the thin possibilities of IS (Daesh) hits on Pak-Afghan border.
In October last year, premier intelligence services had ruled out presence of IS on Pakistan’s soil as a result of survey operations.
Shahidullah Shahid who, a former spokesman for one faction of the TTP, made an announcement last year, pledging allegiance to IS chief Abubakr Al Baghdadi along with some other militants, however, the intelligence assessments termed the statement a ploy to seek publicity. The assessments also suggested that the statement was just an attempt to create an impact on the populace that the destroyed terror network could still pose a threat.
However, in the light of the fresh assessments, the secret services strongly suggest the elimination of TTP remnants hiding in parts of Afghanistan to rule out the remotest possibilities of the foothold of a terror outfit much more ruthless than Al Qaeda.
They are of the assessment that TTP which had been hunted down in tribal areas after the massive anti-terror operation had lost the operational capacity and funding, but the shelter of IS could revive it. Though TTP network under Mullah Fazlullah had denounced Shahid Ullah Shahid’s action, the new situation under which they had been become weaker could push FazlUllah and his likes to pair up with IS.
The assessments further suggest that the IS if gets the support of remnants of TTP operating from limited areas of Afghanistan could not penetrate in South which is under the control of Afghan Taliban while in North the forces of Northern Alliance would not let them march. Resultantly, it is the best time to hit hard the remnants of TTP in isolation before they could once again become a threat using the wings of IS. They were of the assessment that no IS members of Arab origin could come to provide manpower support to them in this part of the world for two reasons. The first reason is that IS has real political and territorial stakes only in Iraq and Syria and their object to make some presence in our region is just to establish the outfit as an international network. Secondly, they are trained for fighting a desert war and could not stand a chance against the Afghan Taliban and Northern Alliance fighters. The IS could only rely on local facilitators and the remaining TTP hiding in Afghanistan could become their perfect underbosses.
It may be mentioned here that as a result of chase operations against TTP sleeper cell members, suspected of linkages with IS in South and Central Punjab cities like Gujranwala, Kasur and Multan last year, no concrete information came up concerning the linkages of these sleeper cells with Middle Eastern militant outfit as a result of thorough interrogations of the state security services.