I was the first one three years back who had made the presence of Daesh in Pakistan known when I disclosed the meetings in a mosque in Daska, Sialkot and thereafter the rest of the network in south Punjab to KPK and FATA.
The then government of PMLN went into denial mode and issued official denial claiming that there were no traces of Daesh in Pakistan. However, the Nation witnessed the banners of Daesh in Islamabad and Karachi.
The claim of Khalid Khorasani, being the head of Daesh Pakistan regarding the presence of Daesh in Pakistan should have been an eye-opener for the then government, which rather than facing the reality chose to brush it aside for political reasons. Khalid Balti, alias Muhammad Khorasani, a Taliban commander from Gilgit Baltistan was the new spokesperson of TTP. Khorasani, who is in his early 30s, received his education from madrassas in Karachi. He is considered a learned cleric and was a teacher at Jamiat-ul-Rasheed in Karachi. Having a vast experience in media and publication, he was also part of Umer Media team of the TTP. In addition, Khorassani is associated with some other madrassas in Karachi for educational and teaching purposes. He is currently in Afghanistan along with newly TTP head Mufti Wali and Ikram Ullah, second suicide bomber escaped from Liaquat Bagh blast scene on the day of Shahadat of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto.
He is the same Khalid Khorasani who was right hand man of Hakeem Ullah Mahsud. The current acts of terrorism are being planned and engineered from Afghanistan and the Daesh trained terrorists are being used by them.
The geo-location of Khalid Khorasani has been reported as at Kunar in Afghanistan. An American journalist was seriously injured when she had traced the location of Ikram Ullah and Fazal Ullah. She met me with her local Pakistani based assistant few weeks’ back and she narrated the whole episode.
There is a big question in the minds of public as to why Daesh is once again so active in KPK and Balochistan? Here is my humble analysis based on available evidence, which I made public vide my press conference dated 23 Aug 2017 where in I had made public the anti Pakistan plan to create wedge within KPK and FATA by creating groups and this was propagated through a specially launched radio station which was shut by Pak intell. Similarly under the same plan the anti Pak groups were reenergised and activated. We witnessed more training camps of Diesh in Afghanistan and more terroristic activities engineered from Afghanistan
This anti-Pak plan was exposed by a prominent USA analyst while being interviewed by a known Russian TV which is part of international media record.
This shows that there is a greater agenda of the West to attempt to disintegrate our country and the nation witnessed unprecedented moves against the federation and especially the Army which were fully backed by newly established radio station and hype in the International media to discredit Pakistan to portray it as a failed state. Briefly speaking, the Daesh is following the Indian RAWagenda/ RSS under PM Modi duly supported by Afghanistan. This sensitive timeline, while Pakistan is going through elections, has been chosen by anti Pakistan designers to move their agenda of destabilising the country particularly KPK & Balochistan. Unfortunately, certain political quarters in Balochistan gave some importance to these anti-Pakistan moves, which was quite upsetting, as they did not foresee the consequences for the country. After the arrest of RAW agent Kulbhushan Yadev there is no doubt left as to how India is involved in destabilising Pakistan.
The Daesh through Indian agents is busy to implement two-points agenda in the country; one is to create scare before election by maximising terrorism during the election and secondly creating unrest in these two provinces to continue to follow the anti Pakistan agenda to destabilise Pakistan through KPK and Balochistan. The sensitive timeline vis-à-vis Pakistan has been chosen by Daesh-RAW nexus to carry out terrorist activities when the country was going through general elections and the government was fully concentrating on ensuring peaceful and fair elections in the country.
I had forewarned the nation last month that Daesh and anti-Pak designers would try to take the full advantage of pre election period and the day of election. My fears are turning true when KPK and Balochistan experienced three terrorist attacks in three days claiming the lives of hundreds of innocent people including two known political figures during their election meetings. The federal as well as the provincial governments are required to take SOS steps to counter this anti-Pakistan agenda.
Is it not an eye opener that when Nawaz Sharif decides to return to Pakistan on 12th July, the Daesh selects the same day to use suicide bombers to create fear and to kill two renowned leaders one form KPK and one from Balochistan. See the links of these two happenings on the same day.
It looks as if the agenda of Daesh is not going to finish here but would continue throughout election period. My assessment is further endorsed by recent threats issued by NACTA. Unlike the last elections when Taliban decided to attack only PPP sparing PML/N and PTI, these threats alerts have been issued to the leadership of all the major political parties including PML/N and PTI, which are too serious to ignore. These indicate that none is safe now from the terrorist attacks by Daesh. In 2013 elections, Taliban had made PPP the sole target of its attacks by providing PML/N safe heaven and it made friendly announcements in favour of both PML/N and PTI. Although the terrorists have threatened all political parties yet all the religio-political parties have been spared minus JUI, as the rally of Mr. Akram Durrani was attacked. All political leadership/ head of the political parties need not to be over confident and do not provide chance to enemy to hit our national leaders.
It is strange for me to see that while Chairman PPP is being blocked and denied the rights of holding public meetings, the leaders of other political parties are being facilitated without any restrictions to continue with theirschedule of holding public meetings at their chosen places. The government needs to analyse if the threats are for a particular political party and individual. It looks as if Daesh have selective targets on its list.
There should be no doubt left in the minds of the government and the security agencies regarding presence of Daesh in Pakistan but what it needs to work on should have been to dig into its real intentions. Is its agenda individual or party based for carrying out terrorist attacks?
I hope that the Government and the agencies take the following steps immediately:
To ask Afghan Government to hand over Khalid Khorasani back to Pakistan for killing innocent Pakistanis, as well as for his claiming responsibility of latest two terrorist attacks.
A national level conference on security may be summoned immediately by the PM comprising ofall political parties/ defence forces / Home Secretaries / all intelligence agencies. Let there be united and collective response to the enemies of Pakistan.
To revisit the national action plan and its effective implementation.
The trend of recent wave of terrorism looks to be preamble of some more tragedies planned by Daesh before election. Where is the government/PM to give wake up and shake up calls to the provincial governments to take SOS measures to halt this wave of terror?
I pray for safe Pakistan and may there be no further tragedy in our country. Ameen
The writer is a PPP Senator, former Interior Minister of Pakistan, and Chairman of think tank “Global Eye” and Senate Body on Interior and Narcotics.
@senrehmanmalik
