IS emerging as a threat, warns IB chief

[INDIAPOSITIVE]

IS emerging as a threat, warns IB chief
IFTIKHAR A. KHAN— UPDATEDABOUT 6 HOURS AGO
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ISLAMABAD: The director general of the Intelligence Bureau, Aftab Sultan, informed the Senate Standing Committee on Interior on Wednesday that the militant Islamic State group was emerging as a threat in the country because several militant groups had soft corner for it. He named Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan as examples.

Though IS and Afghan Taliban were rivals, the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) coordinated with it, he added.

The interior ministry has been denying the presence of IS in Pakistan, saying that it was an Arab organisation. But Mr Sultan said the IB had busted a big IS network after several members reached Punjab following Karachi’s Safoora Goth carnage in May.

He held the banned TTP responsible for major terror incidents in the country and said the group had been realigning with Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and Sipah-i-Sahaba.

He specifically mentioned killings of SP Chaudhry Aslam in Karachi and ANP leader Bashir Bilour in Peshawar.

He said terrorists were reorganising and stressed the need for a border control mechanism, particularly with Afghanistan, enhanced regional cooperation, implementation of the National Action Plan and de-radicalisation policy with a focus on counter-narrative.

The IB chief called for a comprehensive policy for “rehabilitation of jihadi elements” and effective implementation of policy for monitoring social media and cyberspace.

The reconciliation process in Balochistan should be placed on fast track and Fata reforms be implemented, he added.

Aftab Sultan also confirmed the presence of Al Qaeda in the sub-continent and said evidence of their involvement in killings of some police officers had been found.

He said local TTP leader Abid Muchar and Kazan Gul, who were wanted in 100 terror cases, had been neutralised in an IB-led operation.

He said the TTP Fazlullah group was still the strongest militant group and operating in coordination with other outfits.

The law and order situation had considerably improved in the country after the launch of Zarb-i-Azb Operation and terrorists were on the run, he claimed.

Mr Sultan said civilian security and intelligence agencies were augmenting the military operation in cities to avert retaliation by terrorists.

He warned that the country could see more terror attacks because it was not possible to completely eliminate terrorists in the next decade.

He said under a new mechanism the IB was closely working with provincial police and counter terrorism departments.

About target-killings in Karachi, the IB chief said the number of incidents had been coming down steadily since 2013, saying that the figures for ’13, ’14 and ’15 were 1,922, 1,305 and 546 respectively.

He said 1,121 terrorists, target-killers, kidnappers and other criminals were arrested and 95 killed in Sindh in IB-led operations. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 581 terrorists had been arrested and 84 killed in such operations.

In reply to a question, he said foreign hands had not been involved in most of terrorist attacks as local terrorists, mostly from tribal areas, were behind them.

He said the IB had unearthed a gang of robbers which used to come from Afghanistan and dump their weapons in Tarnol areas of the capital. They had confessed 10 big robbery incidents.

He praised Punjab for taking lead in action against sectarian and proscribed organisations and in blocking their finances and ensuring conviction in more than two dozen cases.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2016


IS emerging as a threat, warns IB chief - Pakistan - DAWN.COM

 

[jamahir]

mr. muslim chief of ib, you don't need to be overly patriotic... first do something about the old terrorist movement called sangh parivar... take a note from another former muslim police officer, s.m. mushrif, who has called rss as "number one terrorist organization in india".

 

[Parul]

mr. muslim chief of ib, you don't need to be overly patriotic... first do something about the old terrorist movement called sangh parivar... take a note from another former muslim police officer, s.m. mushrif, who has called rss as "number one terrorist organization in india".

Did you read the OP or read it from lenses of Religion? It's Pakistan's IB Chief, not India.

 

[jamahir]

Did you read the OP or read it from lenses of Religion? It's Pakistan's IB Chief, not India.

okay, my mistake.

i read only the headline and part of the first line and was confused by the agency name and kahonapyarhai posting the article, plus the fact that sanghis have often trumpeted some imaginary secularism portrayed by this fellow ( whose name i mistook ) :

Syed Asif Ibrahim - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Parul]

okay, my mistake.

i was confused by the agency name and kahonapyarhai posting the article, plus the fact that sanghis have often trumpeted some imaginary secularism portrayed by this fellow :

Syed Asif Ibrahim - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Even you also trumpeted your Bigotory in previous post.

 

[jamahir]

Even you also trumpeted your Bigotory in previous post.

nope, neither islam nor hinduism was on my mind when i typed that post... please read the post again to see its non-partisan intention.

 

[pak-marine]

Not surprised .. ! Punjab is where extremists are flourishing

 

[Mansoor-Ur-Rehman]

Well it seems more like rehman malik,s report who's sole duty was to inform that a terrorist attack is going to happen and I told u so... Rather than doing something about it.

 

[Bombermanx1]

mr. muslim chief of ib, you don't need to be overly patriotic... first do something about the old terrorist movement called sangh parivar... take a note from another former muslim police officer, s.m. mushrif, who has called rss as "number one terrorist organization in india".

The IB chief is of Pakistan talking about threats to Pakistan, how did Sangh Parivar, RSS or India come into play?
or you blame everything on the world on Hindus now?

 

[jamahir]

The IB chief is of Pakistan talking about threats to Pakistan, how did Sangh Parivar, RSS or India come into play?

i explained my mistake in post# 4.

you thanked parul's post but chose to ignore my explanation right below her post.

or you blame everything on the world on Hindus now?

no.

i have never discriminated or spoken hatefully against people based on their religion of birth or country of origin.

 

[pak-marine]

IS threat
EDITORIAL — UPDATED ABOUT 3 HOURS AGO

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It is a blunt, though perhaps unsurprising, warning: the country’s top civilian spymaster, director general of the Intelligence Bureau, Aftab Sultan, has told the Senate Standing Committee on Interior that the militant Islamic State group is in fact an emerging threat in the country, particularly because sectarian militant outfits and elements of the banned TTP are sympathetic to its ideology.

The DG IB’s warning stands in stark contrast to the interior ministry’s repeated claims that IS is not a factor inside Pakistan and that suggestions to the contrary were mere propaganda — claims that never quite sat comfortably with the facts emerging operationally.

Also read: IS emerging as a threat, warns IB chief

The logic of what Mr Sultan said on Wednesday is both undeniable and worrying: militant groups have morphed before and many have borrowed bits of ideology from one another.

The experience with Al Qaeda is a particularly dangerous example. Sectarian groups latched on to the sectarianism ingrained in Al Qaeda’s worldview, while other militant outfits learned tactics from and shared operational resources with the organisation.

If Al Qaeda’s ideology and tactics proved seductive enough for some militant groups here in Pakistan, the IS’s ideology is frighteningly close to what sectarian groups in particular would automatically be drawn to.

The problem is particularly acute in Punjab, where, for all the ambivalence and outright denials of the PML-N, reside some of the biggest threats to national stability following the launch of Operation Zarb-i-Azb in Fata.

Both demographics and virulent ideology allowed to spread itself over decades have turned areas in Punjab, and not just in the south, into virtual sectarian tinderboxes.

It is not unknown for villages to be divided spatially along sectarian lines and now that trend is emerging in some of Punjab’s cities and towns — across the province.

Similarly, the TTP — unlike the Afghan Taliban — are an easy ally of IS. Unlike the Afghan Taliban’s more nationalist aims — dominance of Afghanistan — the TTP has a more pan-Islamic view and has always sought to extend its influence outside the geographical boundaries of Pakistan.

Moreover, with the TTP fractured and on the run, a boost in the form of new alliances, such as with IS, is likely to be sought by the group.

The DG IB is not alone in the assessment of a threat from IS; the military leadership too appears to be aware of the dangers that lie ahead nationally, particularly as the bulk of the fighting in North Waziristan winds down.

While army chief Gen Raheel Sharif on Wednesday once again identified “hostile external intelligence agencies” as responsible for some of the terrorism inside Pakistan, he also referred to “sympathisers at home” who provide “refuge and shelter”.

Surely, many of those sanctuaries are in Punjab — the only province that has not had a major crackdown in any part of it. Terrorism being a national problem, the time has come to focus on the Punjab-based aspects of it.

Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2016

 

[Vapnope]

IS threat is not gonna go away by conventional methods. State will have to function like a state first.

 

[Kashmiri Pandit]

I agree IS is a bigger threat .

Currently its limited to certain section of the society . But in Future if several Anti National elements join them , I will not be surprised .

 

[CHD]

IS is not a bigger threat, those arabic idiots are nothing in front of TTP and afghan taliban.
I am still amazed that people think ISIS is some terrorist organisation,its an organised group 3/4 countries in that region for their strategic interest.
No organisation can come up so quickly overnight with all these resources without big budget behind it

 

[illusion8]

mr. muslim chief of ib, you don't need to be overly patriotic... first do something about the old terrorist movement called sangh parivar... take a note from another former muslim police officer, s.m. mushrif, who has called rss as "number one terrorist organization in india".

shabaash!!, asking pakistani IB to interfere in India, no wonder there are some are no.1 @holes in our country.