Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India

Barely 15 days after the seize of Intercontinental hotel in Kabul, another deadly blast shook the city where an explosives-laden ambulance blew itself up in a busy street of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan which was considered a heavenly city a few decades back.

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Both the attacks were a handiwork of Taliban, a strong militia group considered extremely close to the leadership of Pakistan. The shadows of Mr Trump’s decision on withholding the US Aid to Pakistan cannot be ruled out in these attacks.

But there is another deadly group opening up slowly in Afghanistan. The Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL of ISIS) in Khorasan. ISIS is not behind Taliban in brutality. On Wednesday, 24th January 2018, they executed a deadly attack on Jalalabad at Nangarhar on the office of a British Aid Agency “Save the Children”, killing 4 people and injured several dozens. 

In the war-torn country, both the groups are fighting to get more and more territory as well as supporters. Both are major terrorist groups but there are serious differences among them.  

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While Taliban is a group of terrorists comprising of Madarsa students and their teachers which were trained and armed by Pakistan ISI, the ISIS is a full-fledged army which can fight even small conventional wars. 

In Afghanistan, Taliban is a mix of various ethnic and tribal groups and, currently, going through a bad phase of disarray, infighting and leadership crisis. They have been badly hammered by the Coalition forces, as well as Afghan Army, and have lost about 10000 of their fighters in the last two decades or so. But ironically, they have been able to sustain well despite of these aspects. They have killed an equal number of Coalition and Afghan Soldiers and are able to control more than 45% of the Afghanistan Territory. This is more than the area under Taliban control when America started Operation Enduring Freedom in 2001. 

As far as religious alienation is concerned, Taliban strictly follows the Deobandi school of Sunni Islam while the ISIS is a strong Salafi group. There are major ideological differences too. Contrary to the ISIS, Taliban primarily rules as per tribal customs and traditions made by the people. Whereas ISIS has only one aim, the imposition of Shariyat in totality. 

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The primary aim of Taliban is to establish their rule over Afghan territory irrespective of religious issues. The ISIS, however, has only one aim: to establish the Islamic rule under the Caliphate, encompassing the entire Muslim community or Ummah in the territory. They are much more organised, brutal and fearless. 

Since its arrival in Afghanistan in 2015, the group has killed over 700 people and injured more than 1600. That’s an alarming figure. They calculated their move and started active operations only after the US backed forces decided to withdraw after declaring an end to Operation Enduring Freedom in 2014. Exactly the way they did in Iraq. 

ISIS has another major advantage and that is related to their defeat in Iraq and Syria. A sizeable population of ISIS fighters is now returning because of the group losing grounds in Iraq and Syria. A large number of them are from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Uighurs from China and there cannot be a better territory for them to operate than Afghanistan. 

On top of this, many Taliban commanders are defecting and joining the ISIS. The Khorasan Region ISIS, which was initially started by a group of just the 70 people who moved from Iraq to create the force in Afghanistan in 2014, now boasts of several thousand within just 3 years. Surprisingly, the major stronghold of the ISIS in Afghanistan is Nangarhar province which connects the country with Pakistan through the Khyber Pass. 

So, what is the future of the country now? A nation, which is witnessing the worst form of terrorism sponsored by its neighbours, will it ever be able to come out of the dark shadows? Will the citizen of this country ever live a normal life? They have been suffering badly in the past because of inter group fighting.  Initially, it was the US backed coalition to fight Soviet forces, then it was fighting with AL- Qaeda and then with Taliban and now it seems to be ISIS. But one factor is common to all and that is active support from the Pakistan Government and its ISI.

I would feel that there are only two ways- firstly to isolate the country from any kind of ISI or Pakistani influence and, secondly, to come down heavily on the terrorist groups existing within the territory of the country. 

Most importantly, Afghan leaders must understand as to who can help them really in the world. Who are the friends and who are the foes? It will of mutual benefit if India and Afghanistan decide to help each other out to end the scourge of terrorism from the region.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)