South Asia faces IS infiltration – expert

KUALA LUMPUR: The US must re-evaluate its policy towards Afghanistan after its 15-year stint in the country as South Asia faced extremist infiltration from the Daesh (Islamic State) terrorist group that will only worsen the current security challenge in the region, an expert said at the 31st Asia Pacific Forum (APR), here yesterday.

Distinguished Fellow at Observer Research Foundation, Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, said that due to the failure of the US’ objectives to establish a stable post-Taliban regime and defeating forces of extremism in the country, the region was now vulnerable to groups like Daesh.

“Daesh has maximum penetration in Afghanistan and the north-west of Pakistan. If not checked Daesh can become a new security challenge for the region by collaborating with other homegrown extremist groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“Although the relations between Daesh and Taliban, and Daesh and Al Qaeda are not very good, these are very loose organisations with elements between them that tend to gravitate towards each other, such as their local interest,” he said at the APR session titled ‘In Conversation: Asian Views on America’s Role in Asia”.

Citing India as an example, the New Delhi-based expert said that even as the country tried to contain extremism, it still experienced Daesh infiltration activity, especially targeting India’s large Muslim population and that this has been affecting India’s domestic programmes, and the Daesh, also known as ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), is an infamous militant group that was based in Iraq since 1993 before spreading to Syria and proceeded to making its mark worldwide with terrorism attacks throughout the world.

The Taliban existed since 1994 in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It governed Afghanistan since 1996 before losing power in 2001 through the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom.

According to reports, Daesh started gaining a foothold in South Asia in 2015 through Afghanistan, but has now established its presence amidst continued instability in the war-weary country. The group had claimed responsibility over several major attacks in Afghanistan.

Chakravarty said that he believed the Indian government was doing a great job to control the rise of Daesh extremism, by having one of the largest outreach programmes, including stopping their citizens from leaving the country to join extremist groups in foreign lands.

To contain the rise of extremism in the region, India also supported Afghanistan through development aid between US$2 billion and US$3 billion to support the building of infrastructure like schools and medical facilities in the neighbouring country after the Taliban was toppled in 2001.

The former Indian envoy to Bangladesh and Thailand highlighted that to tackle extremism in the region, the US administration must also bring Pakistan to the table as seven of the 20 US-designated terrorist organisations in the AfghanistanPakistan sub-region are reported to be in Pakistan.

Citing the 5th edition of the Asian Voices on America’s Role in Asia (AVARA) report, which he participated in, and was published in February, Chakravarty said that the South Asian countries are deeply concerned with the prospect of a US retreat from the global stage, and hoped that it would not abandon Afghanistan.