Published 12:02 IST, February 4th 2020
Indians among the ISIS foreign fighters who surrendered to Afghan authorities: UN report
While most of the ISIS fighters who surrendered were from Afghanistan, but other foreign nationals included--Indians, Pakistanis, Canadians, French and so on.
Indian nations were among the 1,400 plus Islamic State (IS) extremists who surrendered to Afghanistan authorities in 2019, a UN report stated. While most of those who surrendered were from Afghanistan, but other foreign nationals included--Indians, Pakistanis, Canadians, French and so on. The leg of Islamic State in the region, known as, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – Khorasan Province (ISIL-K) is largely functional in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"More than 1,400 people surrendered to the Afghan authorities, including dependants of ISIL-K fighters. Most males were Afghan nationals, but there were also foreign nationals from Azerbaijan, Canada, France, India, Maldives, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan," the January 2020 report said, without giving a breakup of their numbers.
According to UN report, the Afghan security forces and the fighters of the foe armed group Taliban were able to inflict "severe damage" on Islamic State terrorists. The impact on ISIL-K numbers may be significant. The group is "now assessed to have approximately 2,500 fighters in Afghanistan, with about 2,100 of them concentrated in the Kunar province", it said.
The UN report further said ISIL-K has established informal contact with other terrorist groups, including Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and Lashkar-Islam. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – Khorasan Province (ISIL - K) announced its formation on January 10, 2015, through an online video. It was formed by former Taliban faction commanders who swore allegiance to Abu Bakr Baghdadi, the former so-called caliph of the Islamic State.
Islamic State in India
The Islamic State's official mouthpiece Amaq News Agency had claimed a 'province' in India back in May 2019, called "Wilayah of Hind" following a skirmish with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir. In the realm of narratives, the Islamic States' endevour to expand and establish its province in the region was seen as an attempt to fortify its positioning after taking heavy losses from its vast territories Iraq and Syria in April 2019. The number of Indians who managed to travel to either West Asia or Afghanistan to answer Islamic States' calls between 2014 and 2016 is around 10 to 15.
The director of a group that tracks the terror outfit, SITE Intel Group, Rita Katz had said, "The establishment of a ‘province’ in a region where it has nothing resembling actual governance is absurd, but it should not be written off." Days after the killing of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in November last year had said that the Islamic State was shifting its base to Afghanistan, and thus was a threat to India as well.
(With PTI inputs)
Updated 12:02 IST, February 4th 2020