The Haqqani network has sent its fighters to Syria to fight the Assad government.
Author: Ahmad Saidi, Afghanistan and Regional Affairs Analyst (Germany), especially for Sangar
The Pakistani Taliban are closer to ISIS than any other group. They had many activities in cooperation with ISIS as 2014 was a difficult year for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in terms of structure. After the death of Hakimullah Mehsud in South Waziristan, the leadership of the organization passed to Fazl Hayat, known as Mullah Fazlullah from Swat. Since for the first time the leadership of the organization was out of control of the Mehsud peoples and tribes, the local Taliban affiliated with the Mehsud tribe (the so-called "“circle of Mehsud”), began their activities under the auspices of the Tehrik-e Taliban of Afghanistan.
The Wazir tribes have already established separate groups under the command of Hafiz Gul Bahadur in North Waziristan and Bahawala in South Waziristan (replacing the local commander Mullah Nazir in Van). Tariq Afridi's group of Darai Adamkhel was fractured after his death and Mangalbag Afridi kept his separate group in the Achin region of Nangarhar province while Abdulwali aka Omar Khalid Khorasani of Mohmand joined Jamaat-ul-Ahrar in August 2014 and left Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.
Looking at the initial activity of the new platform, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan released a statement in September 2014 to eliminate Omar Khalid Khorasani along with Ehsanullah Ehsan. This situation was of great concern to the senior commanders and veteran fighters of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. After such commanders as Baitullah Mehsud, Hakimullah Mehsud, and Wali Rahman Mehsud, the leadership of the movement by another clan than Mehsud was completely impossible.
It so happened that Hafiz Saeed Khan Orakzai, who belongs to the Mamuzai of Orakzai district, was also thinking about separating from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. Although he was a Salafi in ideology and was close to Mullah Fazlullah, he was older than Mullah Fazlullah in age and superior in religious knowledge and warfare. He was considered very close to Qari Hussain, the founder of the suicide attacks in Pakistan. He was close to Hakimullah Mehsud, the former leader of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, who spent time with Hafiz Saeed Khan in Mamouzai during difficult times. Hakimullah Mehsud also chose his second wife from the village of Mamozai Hafiz Saeed Khana.
Qari Hussain and Hakimullah Mehsud, unlike Baitullah Mehsud and Wali Rahman Mehsud, who belonged to a purely Deobandi school of thought, were strongly influenced by Salafi's ideas. But when they left, Hafiz Saeed Khan also decided to part ways with the Pakistani Tehreek-e-Taliban. This was at a time when various ISIS delegations were coming to Afghanistan. Their first target was Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan's Salafi commanders.
In this context, Hafiz Saeed Khan Orakzai pledged to join ISIS and, together with former fighters in the federally administered tribal areas and local commanders of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa districts, swore allegiance to Abubakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS at the time in the district of Achin of Nangarhar province and raised the ISIS flag in Afghanistan. Thus, ISIS was officially born in Afghanistan from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.
But is that how it was done?
In fact, on October 10, 2014, Shahidullah Shahid, a former spokesman for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, released a videotape swearing allegiance to the caliph known as Abubakr al-Baghdadi in Hangu (a city in Pakistan). Thus, he left Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and joined ISIS.
But there is a long story ahead, which is also linked to ideology, and its consequences today are associated with the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistani Tehreek-e-Taliban.
The first appearance of Hafiz Saeed Khan in this story occurred when ISIS itself had not yet formed in its current form. The story was that al-Qaeda asked Pakistan to send fighters to jihad against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
In this regard, Azizullah Haqqani, a member of Miranshah Shura of Haqqani Network, and Hafiz Saeed Khan of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan sent their fighters to Syria on 14 July 2012. There, their contacts were directly based on jihadist groups in Syria. Among those who went to Syria was Sheikh Mohsen, a jihadist Salafi from the Afghan province of Kunar.
Abdurahim Muslimdost was another Salafi jihadist from Nangarhar. After the September 11 incident, he was arrested and imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay. Abdurahim Muslimdost was one of the first Salafi Mujahideen of Pakistan during the Afghan Jihad.
Muslimdost was actually close to Sheikh Jamilurrahman. Sheikh Jamilurrahman was a man who not only issued a fatwa on the blasphemy of the Afghan mujahideen but also fought regularly with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar of Hizb-e-Islami.
Another Guantanamo detainee named Abdulrauf Khadim from Helmand, formerly a member of the Quetta Council of the Afghan Taliban, according to the latter's sources, was influenced by Salafi beliefs during his imprisonment, so he could not follow the Deobandi school. Abdulrauf also developed ties with Muslimdost.
As in the past, these people again came up with the idea of a Salafi-Jihadist religious party, and thus Abdurahim Muslimdoust openly formed a party called Tehrike Khilafate Khorasan in 2014.
Farooq Safi, a member of the Peshawar Taliban Council, also joined him. In fact, he was expelled from this group by the Taliban in 2013 due to his strong Salafi beliefs.
