Daesh Watch

[pak-marine]

Questions arise about IS presence in Attock
MOHAMMAD ASGHAR — PUBLISHED 22 minutes ago

CTD has in recent weeks been trying to verify reports that IS has set up a cell in Attock. ùOnline/File
RAWALPINDI: The suicide attack in Attock which claimed the lives of Punjab Home Minister Shuja Khanzada and others on Sunday has raised troubling questions about the possible presence of the self-styled Islamic State (IS) group in the area.

According to sources, the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) has in recent weeks been trying to verify reports that IS has set up a cell in Attock.

Officials privy to findings of the preliminary investigation into the attack said it had been carried out by the IS with help of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.

Also read: Agencies warn Punjab IS recruiting in Pakistan

Retired Colonel Khanzada was instrumental in setting up the CTD in Punjab to curb the spread of extremism and terrorism.

According to an intelligence official, law-enforcement and intelligence agencies were on the lookout for possible backlash in the wake of the killing of Malik Mohammad Ishaq, the leader of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, and had issued “alerts” about the possibility of attacks on important political leaders and government installations.

However, he said, they had not issued any specific alert regarding threats to Mr Khanzada’s life.

The suicide attack came about two weeks after the death of Ishaq and his two sons in a mysterious encounter with CTD personnel.

A senior police officer had confirmed the presence of IS in Attock area in the past and said: “We received confirmed reports about its presence in the area and conducted several raids and search operations but failed to lay hands on any member of the organisation.”

In October last year, the Punjab home department had warned police that Chechen and Uzbek militants expelled from Waziristan during military operations were trying to get shelter under the IS, also known by its Arabic acronym Daesh.

In a letter to divisional police chiefs of Punjab and the CTD, the home department said some local militant groups were reportedly joining Daesh because of its anti-Shia policies.

However, it said that some militant groups were resisting attempts to establish IS in the country.

It quoted intelligence reports as saying a particular group had been attracted to Daesh which might be trying to secure support of jihadi outfits and militant groups in the country.

The home department directed law-enforcement agencies to keep an eye on individuals associated with banned outfits and check their activities.

Earlier, IS flags were found on electric poles in the sensitive area of Taxila.

Officially, Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has been denying the presence of the IS in the country.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2015

 

[Dagger Unit]

Right now there is no daesh in Pakistan but need to keep an aye on them.

 

[pak-marine]

Daesh Netwrok present in Sindh - IG Sindh

Aaj Shahzaib Khanzada Ke Saath – 13th October 2015


Watch Talk show ^^

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

the reality is that certain forces want to divide the Afghan taleban (or regular Afghan Pakhtuns) and lead some away from Mullah Mansoor....dark forces need the Afghans to be divided. Daesh in Afghanistan means problems for Pakistan, and problems for Pakistan means New York Times and other propaganda outlets to talk about Pakistani "nuclear safety" and this and that.

It's all a game. But these games wont succeed Insha'Allah. Seems that Mullah Mansoor faction (the majority) of Afghan taleban/"Islamic Emirate" as well as Islamic Republic of Iran will be Pakistan's best hopes (insurance policy) to keep Daesh and other enemies of Pakistan far away from this region!!! It would be great to see Taleban of Afghanistan and the Northern Alliance to unite and set aside differences but we all know that the hatred is far too deep, the people are too emotional - too stubborn and not having any opportunities to do the right thing

DAESH MUST BE STOPPED!

 

[Asfandyar.Khan]

ISIS ‘recruiter’ held in Peshawar
PESHAWAR, 9 November: Peshawar police on Monday arrested an Afghan national allegedly involved in recruiting local people for ISIS, sources said.

They said the accused, Dadullah was arrested after a short encounter with police in the jurisdiction of the Badhber police station. Police also recovered weapon from the accused.

The accused was allegedly recruiting local people for the ISIS.
ISIS ‘recruiter’ held in Peshawar | RadioTNN.com

 

[pak-marine]

The threat is still there
MUHAMMAD AMIR RANA — UPDATED ABOUT 2 HOURS AGO

The writer is a security analyst.


AS Pakistan’s militant landscape evolves, we continue to ignore the emerging threats, deeming them insignificant.

It seems the security institutions also do not want to shift their focus away from the immediate threats confronting the country at present.

In a way, that is understandable because a prospective evaluation of emerging threats requires concerted efforts while denial costs nothing.

In the aftermath of the Paris attacks, the question regarding the presence of the affiliates and supporters of the militant Islamic State (IS) group in Pakistan has become even more important.

But, predictably enough, the Foreign Office spokesperson has come out with a categorical denial of any footprint of the terrorist group in the country.

Notwithstanding this official stance, it is a fact that IS’s Khorasan chapter exists in this region and many militants, commanders and small terrorist groups have already declared allegiance to IS.

The denial on the part of the state stems from a weak and superficial understanding of the threat matrix. Ironically, the security institutions also do not appear ready to expand their threat perception beyond the Pakistani Taliban in the tribal region and sectarian terrorist organisations in mainland Pakistan.

Evolving militant movements like IS can pose a significant threat to the country’s internal security.
Two alarming reports have appeared in the Pakistani media in recent months. The first was about the arrest of some self-radicalised individuals in Karachi, who were on their way to Syria to join IS.

They told investigators how they had made contact with the terrorist group in cyberspace. It is an alarming indication of an emerging trend of self-radicalisation among educated Pakistani youth.

However, Pakistan’s political and security circles consider the phenomenon, also linked to the ‘lone wolf’ concept, as being confined to Western countries.

The second report was about about an operational IS network in Sindh, the existence of which was disclosed by senior police officials.

I have said time and again in this column that the IS factor has provided a lifeline to the militant groups operating in our region.

The IS model has illustrated the importance of controlling territory in order to project and establish power on the ground. IS’s territorial gains in Afghanistan are also an indication of emerging threats for Pakistan.

The Khorasan chapter is not only meant for Afghanistan but also includes this country and parts of Central Asia.

Though it would be difficult for IS to penetrate Pakistani territory, it can add to the insecurity at the Pak-Afghan border and heighten the risk of cross-border violence and attacks inside Pakistan.

There is a need to understand that the security challenges facing Pakistan do not come only from banned groups like the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LJ) but that evolving terrorist movements like IS can also pose a significant threat to the country’s internal security.

No doubt groups such as the TTP and LJ have been losing their operational edge since the launch of military operations in parts of the country, but their supply line of human resource is still intact. As these groups are further weakened, there is a possibility that this supply line will divert to other groups including Al Qaeda and IS.

The nature of the human resource available to Pakistani terrorist groups is as diverse as these groups themselves.

Educational institutions and radical segments of religious groups are still attractive as sources of recruitment for sectarian terrorist groups, as are tribal militant groups like the TTP and Jamaatul Ahrar.

Radical tendencies among educated youth, from both public and private educational institutions, have the potential to serve the purpose of global terrorist movements as well as local violent radical groups. Self-radicalised individuals who are influenced by militant ideologies fall in this category.

Many among them, not formally affiliated with any local or international terrorist organisation, remain in search of causes that resonate with their radicalised worldview.

The members of conventional militant groups like Jamaatud Dawa and the banned Jaish-e-Mohammad always remain available for Al Qaeda and ultra-radical violent movements.

Understanding the dynamics of conventional militant groups is always a difficult task. The militant groups do not operate like criminal syndicates; they fight for certain political and ideological causes and need public support to sustain their activities. Therefore, they also have to be on the surface to sustain and expand their support base.

The religious-ideological discourse has acted as a catalyst for them. It has not been easy for these groups to survive on the strength of their old religious-nationalistic tendencies or to adopt a more political role.

Militant groups can shift the focus away from an enemy-centric to a condition-centric approach. This is what happened in the fight against the militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas, where the state remained confused over the exact status of the enemy, and where it tried to pursue the ‘talk-and-fight’ approach, which did not prove effective. Such approaches have an impact on policymakers’ assessments.

On the other hand, militants’ strategies continue to evolve, and their overall strategy combines both violent and political means.

A generational perspective of the militants can help improve the threat perception.

The conventional militant groups are custodians of the first generation of militants, who evolved under the influence of the jihadi culture of the 1980s-1990s and who had certain nationalist tendencies.

The second generation was nurtured in the post-9/11 world under the influence of changing global and regional political scenarios; this was the transformational generation.

Though the third generation is also the product of a changing political environment, it also experienced an ideological transformation.

Most militants from this generation have not had any experience of the first or second generations.

Their views were taking shape amid the socio-religious changes at the time and in a static political environment. This generation feels more attraction towards groups like IS.

First, during their affiliation with the TTP, LJ or conventional groups, members of this generation transform themselves on an ideological level to reach a stage where they start acting like independent groups. Once they become independent in following their ideological drive, they are more prone to joining groups like IS. In this perspective, the actions of this third generation of militants are key to shaping and transforming the militant landscape.

The writer is a security analyst.

Published in Dawn, November 22nd, 2015

 

[pak-marine]

How much does the average Pakistani know about IS?
MULTIMEDIA DESK — PUBLISHED 12 MINUTES AGO
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Pakistan's response to a recent Pew Research Survey conducted in Muslim-majority countries raised more than a few eyebrows.

While most countries with significant Muslim populations oppose the self-styled Islamic State (IS), Pakistan became a notable exception, as the majority — 62% — offered no conclusive opinion.

When a Pew researcher was asked on Twitter by one observer whether it is clear if Pakistanis are aware of IS, he responded saying it was not.





We decided to venture out onto Karachi's bustling I.I Chundrigar Road to ask passers-by what (if anything) they knew about IS.

 

[pak-marine]

Govt says IS has no presence, intelligence thinks otherwise
MOHAMMAD ASGHAR — UPDATED ABOUT 7 HOURS AGO
RAWALPINDI: Citing intelligence, the Punjab Home Department has alerted police and other agencies in the province that the self-styled Islamic State (IS) has planned attacks on civil and military targets.

Dawn has learnt from official sources that, in view of the threat level, divisional police chiefs and the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) have been directed to undertake ‘foolproof security measures’.

Police patrols, military vehicles and private establishments are supposedly on the hit list of militants affiliated with IS, also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh.

These intelligence-based directions seem to contradict the assertions made by the federal government that IS has no presence in Pakistan. Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, however, described the ‘threat alert’ to Dawn as being ‘a routine matter’.

Know more: IS doesn’t exist in Pakistan: Sana

“There is no existence of Daesh in Pakistan, especially in Punjab,” the minister said. “There are some troublemakers belonging to banned outfits and the government is making efforts to eliminate these criminals,” he said.

Rawalpindi Regional Police Officer Mohammad Fakhar Sultan Raja, on the other hand, is considering “sensitising private establishments” to the threat alert, to discuss “precautionary measures” soon.

Indeed, the Punjab government’s alert specifically mentioned that IS-affiliated militants are out to strike army vehicles moving on Jalalpur Jattan Road and police patrols on GT Road in Gujrat district.

Intelligence on their plans for private targets was even more specific. It said a group of five terrorists has reached Lahore, and plans to storm private establishments by indiscriminately killing their security guards.

According to an intelligence official, their likely targets could be minorities and foreigners.

Security agencies and police in the provinces have been implementing the counterterrorism National Action Plan (NAP).

In Punjab, two to three cases are registered daily, for disruptive wall-chalking, renting out properties without informing the area police and more. But the flow of illegal arms continues.

In December 2014, the Punjab Home Department warned provincial police that Chechen and Uzbek militants fleeing the military operation in Waziristan were seeking shelter with people sympathetic to IS.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2015

 

[pak-marine]

Hakumat Daesh Ki Majoodgi Se.....Ba Khabar Hai Ya Be Khabar ya Routine DENIALLL !!!

watch what leader of the opposition PTI's Mian Mehmood ur Rasheed has to say very Alarming 35:30 ISIS taking oath from people in Mosques

 

[Zaneesh852]

 

[hibiny]

Daesh is close to death

 

[untitled]

Why did ISIS name itself after an ancient Egyptian deity? Surprised they did not have a single Egyptologist amongst their ranks when they named themselves.

 

[niaz]

Why did ISIS name itself after an ancient Egyptian deity? Surprised they did not have a single Egyptologist amongst their ranks when they named themselves.

ISIS stands for Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham. It is all capitals.

Egyptian goddess was called Isis. It was a proper noun not the initials of a larger name. No one in the Middle East would mistake state of ISIS or ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq & Levant) as named after the Egyptian goddess of ancient times. It is only in Pakistan that people think of imagined connections

 

[Old School]

There are many Pakistanis who joined Daesh / ISIS in Syria and Iraq. They will come back to Pakistan and create trouble. Pakistan should eliminate them before they return.

 

[untitled]

ISIS stands for Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham. It is all capitals.

Egyptian goddess was called Isis. It was a proper noun not the initials of a larger name.

So one is all capital and other is a proper noun. That sir according to you sufficent difference to differentiate between the two. Recently an Australian company ISIS had to rename itself because people were mistaking them for the terrorist organisation.

No one in the Middle East would mistake state of ISIS or ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq & Levant) as named after the Egyptian goddess of ancient times.

So Egypt is not in the middle east? There are no Egyptian Egyptologists?

It is only in Pakistan that people think of imagined connections

My point was that I was questioning their intelligence. They claim to be champions of Islam yet they ended up sharing a name with an Egyptian deity. Would you have said the same if their name spelled out to be the name of some Norse, Roman, Greek or even Indian diety? You must also forgive me because I thought the US group SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) was named after the Egyptian Kings Seti. Now I see the difference since SETI is all capitals. Even though NASA has a history of naming their projects after Roman/greek myths. SETI is not directly related to NASA but they share at least two joint projects. Project Cyclops and Project Argus. Wonder what they are named after? While we are talking of ancient Egyptian myths I would request @Horus to clarify his username. Thanks in advance.