‘Pakistan is deliberately pushing Afghanistan as a new ISIS hotbed’

INDIAN INTELLIGENCE OFfiCIALS FEEL THAT PAKISTAN IS DOING THIS SO THAT India’s efforts to brand it as a ‘terror state’ are diluted.

they were one year ago”, the leader said.

Last year in July, the US and Afghan Special Operations Forces had conducted an airstrike in Afghanistan that targeted and killed IS leader Hafiz Sayed Khan ately trying to exploit Russia’s vulnerability regarding IS and its policy makers have been reaching out to the Russian officials stating that the two countries need to work together to counter the IS threat.

The Indian intelligence community, too, have confirmed about the presence of IS in Afghanistan and the likelihood of IS shifting its focus to Afghanistan after the setback it has been receiving in Iraq and Syria. As per a recent assessment of the Indian intelligence officials, 22 persons from Kerala, who had gone missing between June and July last year, are said to be in an ISIS camp in Nangarhar Province in Afghanistan.

However, officials in the Indian intelligence community feel that Pakistan is deliberately trying to push Afghanistan as the new ISIS hotbed by telling that the emergence of ISIS in Afghanistan will endanger not just Pakistan but Russia, Iran and China too so that India’s efforts to brand it as a “terror state” are pushed into the background. The IS, according to experts, has around 3000 supporters in Nangarhar, a majority of them which have come from the neighbouring Pakistan.

In the last few months, Pakistan has been desperately trying to exploit Russia’s vulnerability regarding ISIS.