ISLAMABAD: As there is no organized presence of Daesh in Pakistan, the splinter groups of banned outfits and the remnants of some sectarian militant organizations are believed to be behind the January 3 Mach massacre in which 11 coalminers belonging to Hazara Shia community were killed.
In response to a query from this correspondent, Foreign Office spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said: “We have seen reports on these claims [by Daesh] being made on social media. Our law enforcement agencies (LEAs) are investigating the case and the claims so made.”
He told that LEAs have continued to carry out intelligence-based operations against all miscreants across the country, including in Balochistan. “As for the presence of Da’esh in Pakistan, the law enforcement agencies have ensured that this organization doesn’t take root in Pakistan,” the spokesperson asserted.
Security experts further pointed out that sectarian groups such as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) and Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA) have supported Daesh in the past due to a common anti-State and anti-Shia ideology and could possibly be involved in the heinous attack against the persecuted Hazara community in Balochistan.
Talking to Business Recorder, security expert and Director Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS) Aamir Rana said ‘though possibility of Daesh involvement in the massacre could not be ruled out, yet circumstantial evidence does not prove any organized presence of Daesh in Pakistan.’
He further stated that a large number of militants associated with LeJ and Jundullah – an anti-state and anti-Shia militant outfit largely based in Balochistan – who had joined Daesh, may have been behind the attack and decided to link the heinous attack to Daesh with which they have a tacit understanding.
In order to avoid any crackdown, he added, these elements take refuge under the umbrella of major terror outfits with no presence in the country which also benefits the latter as it creates an impression of its presence in the country.
Brig Mehmood Shah (retd), a senior security analyst, said that at present there is no organized presence of any militant organization in the country which is reflected by the fact that terrorism in the country has significantly reduced.
However, he added that the sleeping cells of defunct banned militant organizations are being exploited by India from Afghanistan with an attempt to reactivate them to create instability inside Pakistan.
He pointed out that Daesh does have presence in Afghanistan which has claimed many recent attacks in Kabul and also against the Shia Hazaras in parts of Afghanistan.
Daesh, a Middle East based global terror network, announced its Khorasan branch for Pakistan, Afghanistan, and nearby areas in January 2015 with no current evidence of Daesh’s central leadership directing terrorist activities in Pakistan.
In January last year, Daesh had claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing inside a mosque in which 15 people - the majority of them police personnel – were killed while 19 others were injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a mosque during maghrib prayers in the Ghousabad area of Quetta on January 11, 2020.
Back in March 31, 2017, in an attack claimed by the Daesh backed militant outfit Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, 24 people were killed and more than 100 injured when a suicide attack was carried out on an Imambargah in Parachinar.
On January 21, 2017, there were 25 fatalities and more than 87 were injured in a bomb explosion at the Sabzi Mandi area in Parachinar, responsibility for which was also claimed by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) al-Alami and TTP splinter group Shehryar Mehsud group.
In a similar attack on December 13, 2015, claimed by LeJ Al-Alami and Ansarul Mujahideen, there were 25 fatalities and 62 were injured in a market in Parachinar. All these attacks were targeted against the Shia community.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021