The ISIL-K have threatened to launch terrorist attacks against the embassies of India, Iran and China in Afghanistan with the motive to undermine the relationship between Taliban and neighbouring countries, a UN report has claimed.
The revelations were made in a report, published by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday on the threats posed by ISIL.
“The activities of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant-Khorasan (ISIL-K) remained a significant terrorist threat in Central and South Asia, and the group retained ambitions to conduct external operations,” the 16th report of the Secretary-General on the threat posed by ISIL (Da’esh) to international peace and security and the range of United Nations efforts in support of member states in countering the threat said.
The Security Council will on Thursday hold a meeting on ‘Threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts’ during which Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism Vladimir Voronkov will present the report issued last week.
The report said that ISIL-K had positioned itself as the “primary rival” to the Taliban and was reportedly set to portray the Taliban as incapable of providing security in the country.
“Its main goal is to portray the Taliban as incapable of providing security in the country. By targeting diplomatic missions, ISIL-K seeks to undermine the relationship between the Taliban and neighbouring countries,” the report said.
“The group also threatened to launch terrorist attacks against the embassies of China, India and the Islamic Republic of Iran in Afghanistan,” it added.
The report also said that the current strength of ISIL-K is between 1,000 to 3,000 fighters, of whom approximately 200 were of Central Asian origin. It added that number could be as high as 6,000.
In June last year, India resumed its diplomatic presence in Kabul by deploying a technical team in its embassy in the Afghan capital, over 10 months after it pulled out its officials from the mission following the Taliban’s capture of power.
The reopening of the embassy took place after an Indian team led by senior Ministry of External Affairs official J.P. Singh had visited Kabul and met acting Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi and some other members of the Taliban dispensation.
The report further said that an attack in September last year on the Russian Embassy in Kabul was the first against a diplomatic presence in Afghanistan since the takeover by the Taliban.
In December, ISIL-K claimed attacks against the Embassy of Pakistan and a hotel frequented by Chinese nationals.
“Apart from high-profile attacks, ISIL-K conducted near-daily attacks targeting Shia minorities, which also served to undermine the Taliban’s authority and challenge their nascent security agencies,” the report said.
ISIL-K media organisation Voice of Khorasan released propaganda in Pashto, Persian, Tajik, Uzbek and Russian with the goal of recruiting from ethnic groups in the region to strengthen the group’s capabilities, the report said.
It added that one UN member state noted the cooperation between the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement and ISIL-K, even though historically the former had aligned itself with Al-Qaida.
According to the member state, such cooperation included jointly published Uighur-language propaganda posters, the exchange of personnel, and military advice and planned joint operations, such as the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement sending members to join the operational unit of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant-Khorasan responsible for tracking and carrying out attacks against Chinese nationals.
In July last year, the two groups reportedly plotted to purchase weapons and conduct terrorist attacks against Chinese targets in Afghanistan. The Syrian branch of the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement had actively recruited Chinese nationals from Da’esh in the Syrian Arab Republic, a UN member state said in the report.
Read all the Latest India News here