Pakistan Taliban leaders pledge allegiance to Isis
Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad and Victor Mallet in New Delhi
©AFP
Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
Six leaders of the Pakistani Taliban have pledged allegiance to the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, known as
Isis, and its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
But the announcement by Shahidullah Shahid, spokesman of
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, also suggests rivalry between various Islamist factions in Asia and the Middle East, including the global
al-Qaeda group hosted by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in the run-up to the September 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington.
“I am confirming my allegiance to Amirul Momineen [Commander of the Faithful]
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and will abide by all his decisions, whatever the order, and whatever the circumstances I shall be loyal to him,” the statement said in Arabic and Urdu.
He said five other Pakistani Taliban leaders, including Mufti Hassan, who heads the group in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, joined him in the pledge.
Western diplomats said the announcement was a powerful reminder of the ability of militants based in Iraq and Syria to seek allies elsewhere in the Islamic world. “These people are seeking a wider geographical reach than just their immediate neighbourhood. Pakistan naturally fits in to their view of the world,” one said.
However, Pakistani intelligence officials cautioned against assuming that the Sunni jihadi group was making inroads in the country. One senior official said the announcement was “just a major propaganda ploy to give sleepless nights to [US President] Obama” during US attacks on Isis targets in the Middle East.
Some analysts saw the pledge as a first step to draw Isis into Pakistan. “Right now, it’s an application to get a [Isis] franchise,” said Tasneem Noorani, a retired senior civil servant from the interior ministry in Islamabad. “If [Isis] moves to accept this expression of loyalty, then it will be a more serious situation.”
Pakistan, which joined the US and Saudi Arabia in sponsoring mujahideen guerrilla attacks against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, is now wracked by its own
political and religious bloodletting that has seen Sunni extremists shoot and blow up Shia, Christians and other civilians across the country.
Malala Yousafzai, a 17-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl shot by the Taliban for supporting female education, was last week named joint winner of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize.
Neighbouring Afghanistan remains in the throes of a civil war that pits the Afghan Taliban against the government in Kabul, while the departure of most of the Nato troops that tried and failed to crush the Taliban in the 13 years since 2001 has left the country as vulnerable as ever to violence and terror.
Pakistani Taliban militants over the border are under intense pressure from military campaign against them in North Waziristan and there have been signs of ideological and strategic differences in the leadership.
Mullah Fazlullah, the group’s leader, has sworn allegiance to Mullah Omar, the Afghan Taliban chief, although Mr Shahid said Mr Fazlullah supported Mr Baghdadi.
Ayman al-Zawahiri, the
al-Qaeda leader, last month announced the formation of a south Asian branch of his group, prompting renewed concern in India and its neighbours about the spread of terrorist violence in the region and speculation that al-Qaeda was competing with Isis for militant Sunni support.
Pakistani media have reported the appearance of Isis pamphlets in the Dari and Pashto languages in Peshawar and elsewhere along the Pakistani-Afghan border.
Mr Zawahiri said the new branch, called “al-Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent” would support Muslims in Myanmar and Bangladesh, the Indian states of Assam and Gujarat, and in the disputed territory of Kashmir, now split between India and Pakistan.