SOURCE: THE WEEK
The terror attack on Afghanistan Vice President Amrullah Saleh on September 9 has drawn the attention of American and Indian intelligence agencies to attempts being made by Pakistan-sponsored terror outfits to derail the Doha agreement which paves way for the withdrawal of the US forces from Afghanistan.
As the Afghanistan peace negotiations pick up, there are changes taking place along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border where the ISI is working to divert its attention, from its traditional proxies to Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) to advance its agenda in Afghanistan, India and Iran.
”The peace negotiations in Afghanistan have given a fresh opportunity for the Pakistan ISI to use new terror proxies to advance its agenda in the region,” said a senior security official.
On August 30, Afghan police team raided a transit camp of Lashkar-e-Taiba in Khas Kunar also known as Sarkani district in Kunar province of Eastern Afghanistan and recovered Mortar launchers with ammunitions. But there is more to the LeT involvement in terror in Afghanistan than meets the eye.
Indian intelligence agencies have inputs of numerous LeT terrorists infiltrating into ISKP and even occupying top positions in the outfit. ”The terrorists, their leaders and their commanding agency are almost the same. It is more like the ISI has been rebranding the old outfits by excluding its irritants,” said an intelligence report.
The report says that the ISI is shaping and strengthening the ISKP, which was in its nascent phase until very recently.
Security experts said the ISI has successfully implemented the model of carrying out attacks by its proxies like the Haqqani network and at the same time denying any role and pushing the ISKP to claim the responsibility.
However, ISI’s strategy of hybrid warfare and camouflaging different organisations is being seen as a threat by the Taliban. The intelligence inputs revealed that a number of prominent Taliban leaders believe that the functioning of ISKP, under ISI’s directions, could be a threat to Doha Accord. They believe that the activities of the ISKP would breach the accord. On is part, the ISKP, which claims to be the regional branch of the ISIS, might be working towards recruiting ISIS cadres who have returned to India to carry out attacks in the country. The recent arrests of Syria-returned ISIS terrorists in the country are an indication that the ISI, through ISKP, is actively seeking to recruit cadres from India.
There is a view in the security establishment that following the Afghan model, the claims of the terrorists attacks by the JeM, LeT and other organisations, including in Kashmir, would be taken by the ISKP. By doing so, the ISI would be able to divert attention from outfits operating from its soil and at the same time carry out attacks in India and the sub continent.
