DISAFFECTION WITH THE TALIBAN IS TO ISIS’S BENEFIT
▶ Security experts estimate that up to a tenth of the militant group’s ranks could defect if it signs a deal with Kabul,
In the shade of an openair riverside restaurant in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, Bilal sits cross-legged on a pillow, his eyes scanning the sky and the surrounding area ceaselessly. He jumps up nervously as the shadow of a bird crosses his face.
Bilal, 28, is an IS Khorasan fighter – the ISIS branch in Afghanistan – and says that, over the past year, it has gained a few thousand fighters in the country, with their funding coming from rich people abroad as well as criminal activity, such as kidnapping.
IS-K has been active in Afghanistan since 2015.
Its fighters pledge allegiance to ISIS central command, which once operated from its base in the eastern Syrian city of Raqqa, where its members beheaded hostages, raped slaves and killed hundreds for a long list of offences, including sorcery.
The Afghan National Army and the US military, as well as the Taliban, fight the extremist group in Afghanistan.
“There are an estimated 4,000-6,000 fighters and a fourth of them are foreigners,” says Lt Gen Abdul Hadi Khalid, a researcher at the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies think tank and a former vice minister of the interior.
Afghanistan’s spy agency says the figures are far lower, and that only about 3,000 remain after thorough military operations.
Most fighters enter the country through the Iran-Afghanistan border.
A Pakistani native from a religious, lower middle-class family, Bilal came to Afghanistan eight years ago.
He originally joined the Taliban, but the group’s changing ideology pushed him away and he eventually joined IS-K two years ago.
As the Taliban and the US negotiate a peace deal in Doha,
Bilal says that he is ready for a violent future.
“With ongoing peace talks, IS-K recruitment has increased,” a government security official tells The National.
“This includes recruitment from foreign fighters who are already in Afghanistan, but work with networks in their home countries.
“We will see if they become bigger once a peace deal is signed, but we estimate that about five per cent to 10 per cent of Talibs might join Daesh then.”
Bilal says it was not financial considerations but his personal wish to fight that made him decide to join the group.
“IS-K is giving money and power to people and it’s appealing,” says Mahmood Marhoon, an author and researcher at Kabul University.
“Most of the people who join are young, and while it’s tough to put a finger on exact numbers, the group is definitely stepping up its recruitment.”
The Ministry of Defence’s spokesman, Zubair Arif, says that 95 per cent of the group has been conquered, contrary to other expert opinion.
“We fought hard to remove them in Nangarhar and Kunar,” he says.
“Many of them are foreigners and enter Afghanistan through all borders, even through Kabul’s international airport.”
The threat is not far-fetched, especially in the country’s eastern provinces of Nangarhar, Kunar and Nuristan, where the group has gained some territory over the past six months, according to a Pentagon report released last month.
“Regionally, the group continues to evade, counter and resist sustained CT [counterterrorism] pressure,” the report said.
A new UN report states that, out of the almost 4,000 civilian casualties in the first months of 2019, 11 per cent could be attributed to IS-K.
The Taliban and IS-K have been fighting each other, often for ideological reasons.
Both groups accuse each other of not being Islamic.
In the past year, IS-K has taken over large forest areas, previously under Taliban control, with a booming timber and mining industry helping to fund its activities.
“Daesh is also gaining strength in eastern Afghanistan because they are fighting ideologically,” says Nadir, 35, a former Taliban trainer.
After 12 years of educating fighters in suicide attack methods, Nadir has left the insurgents behind to focus on his university studies.
“The Taliban’s ideology is becoming weak and it means that several of their fighters have joined Daesh – including Bilal,” he says.
IS-K territory is mainly constrained to eastern Afghanistan, yet new, small pockets are emerging elsewhere in the country.
“We see them in the north, in provinces like Takhar and Badakhshan,” Lt Gen Khalid says.
“Salafism is active in some northern areas and that’s where IS-K is finding ground.”
Bilal says the Taliban have changed.
“They are not fighting infidels any more, but they come to the negotiation table with them.” He says that the group has managed to set up a semi-functioning state system, including schools, courtrooms and medical centres.
“Some women have even joined their husbands here. Local people see our good laws and want to join us. The young men I know – some of them are Uzbeks, Indians,
Iranians, Chinese, even a few Europeans – want to give their lives,” Bilal says.
Nadir disagrees. “People have been brainwashed,” says the former terrorist trainer, who is using a fake name to conceal his identity.
He has known Bilal for many years, having once taught him how to build suicide vests.
But for Bilal, joining the fighting was a decision he made after studying in one of Pakistan’s religious schools.
“Foreign forces have come here to attack us and destroy our home, so we have to do the same,” the young man says. “We do this to terrorise people and stir fear.”
A few years ago, Bilal’s family, from Karachi in Pakistan, visited him in Afghanistan.
“My mother came to find me a wife, but I refused,” he says. “I live right on the front line and if I die, my wife would be alone.”
He now shares a house with two other single Pakistani fighters. Bilal says he has come to Jalalabad to catch up with friends, but he’s manoeuvring through the city by avoiding checkpoints and hiding from the police.
“We’re targeting people, but we’re also a target here,” he says. “It’s only in the Daesh areas that I feel safe.”