Kabul bombings: Taliban will eventually provide safe haven for Islamic State and terror in general

New Delhi, Aug 27: The Islamic State Khorasan Province claimed responsibility for the suicide attacks at the Kabul Airport in which several persons including Afghans were killed. While the ISKP has carried out several attacks and has been at war with the Taliban, the most recent one at the airport is probably one of the most blatant.

The ISKP was established in the Nangarhar province of eastern Afghanistan in January 2015. While it has not managed to beat down the Taliban, the outfit has always been an irritant in Afghanistan.

When the ISKP was formed, Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour had written to the ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to stop the recruitment drive. The ISIS had started recruiting disgruntled Taliban fighters. Mansour had said in the letter that any activity by the ISIS in Afghanistan should be carried out under the leadership of the Taliban.

However the letter was not paid heed to and fighting broke out between the two factions within the Taliban in Zabul Province on whether or not to join the ISIS. In April 2017, the ISIS took into captivity several drug dealers who were selling opium to raise funds for the Taliban. This led to more clashes and 20 terrorists were killed in the fighting.

In July there were more conflicts and the ISIS suffered further setbacks. It was in February 2020 the Donald Trump Administration signed a peace accord with the Taliban in Doha and the outfit pledged that it would keep the ISIS and other extremist groups out of Afghanistan. Currently, according to estimates there are around 2,000 ISIS terrorists remaining in Afghanistan. It may be recalled that around 23 persons from Kerala too had left for Afghanistan to join the ISIS. Many have died, while some have been captured.

Officials tell OneIndia that while the Taliban may have won the battle for Kabul, the ISKP would continue to be an irritant for it. The outfit has a significant number of people who are highly radicalised and the bombing at the airport is an indicator of the same. The Taliban may have assured the United States that it would keep outfits such as the ISKP and Al-Qaeda out of Afghanistan. However it is too early to assess whether that assurance would be adhered to or not.

Leon Panetta, former US Secretary of Defence however told NPR's All Things Concerned that the Taliban are terrorists and they will support terrorists. There is no question in my mind that they will provide a safe haven for the Al-Qaeda, the ISIS and terrorism in general, he had said earlier this month.