Al-Qaeda* - the world's largest terrorist brand has begun implementing its plans for Central Asia. Its capital now is Nuristan
Source: Sputnik Tajikistan
The terrorist organization has allocated the initial amount for these programs, has appointed a special representative, and has negotiated with terrorist organizations on the north side of Amudarya, seeking to establish training centers, some of whose teachers are from Central Asian countries.
Sputnik Tajikistan has obtained a series of intelligence reports documenting the implementation of these programs by Al-Qaeda, with sources from the organization’s second-tier leaders active in the programs, as well as the name of the reporter.
According to these reports, Al-Qaeda has appointed a person named Dr. Tariq Jalal as its intelligence officer in Central Asia, has allocated $3 million for preparations, and wants to set up training centers in Afghanistan's Nuristan province.
Tariq Jalal and others
Tariq Jalal, a 57-year-old Saudi citizen, is also known as "Sheikh Abdullah" and "Sheikh Al-Arabi". He previously lived and worked in Karachi and the Shawol Valley of South Waziristan, Pakistan. On July 28, 2021, he entered the Suk district of Kunar province, Afghanistan, from the Bajavor Agency of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and came to Nuristan without stopping.
"He has tremendous financial opportunities. Al-Qaeda's leadership in the north (Takhar, Kunduz, Balkh, Jouzjan, Faryab), north-east (Badakhshan, Panjshir, Nuristan, Nangarhar, Konar) of Afghanistan and its intelligence activities in Central Asian countries is on his shoulders," - the report said.
His deputy - Abu Imad, two others - Abu Yusuf (or Abu Amin), the head of Al-Qaeda intelligence in Nangarhar province, Abu Qahir Rashid, the head of Al-Qaeda intelligence for Nuristan province, are Iraqi citizens. Abu al-Hasan al-Suri (Syria) carries out intelligence tasks on a mobile basis in different provinces of the north, north, and east.
In the Tariq Jalal intelligence team, a man named Sheikh Abu Umar, also known as Sheikh Hamid al-Fatih, identifies himself as a Yemeni citizen, but sources in al-Qaeda say he is a Russian or British citizen.
"He is not exactly an Arab, but no one knows for sure, whether he is Russian or British. Sheikh Omar calls himself an Arab, behaves as Arab, and speaks Arabic, English, Urdu, and Pashto very well. He is about 45 years old and of average height, his skin color is white. He has short hair and a shark beard. He is yellow, meaning he does not have a black beard," - said the source.
Sheikh Omar is in charge of Al-Qaeda's mapping and planning in Central Asian countries for intelligence and terrorist activities, and is a very important Al-Qaeda operative.
Tariq Jalal's team and all members of his intelligence team live in the village of Arnas, Want Waigal district of Nuristan province.
Nuristan - Al-Qaeda base for Central Asia
Al-Qaeda has designated Nuristan as the main base of operations in Central Asia, and Tariq Jalal has come only to launch operations there. But how do these activities take place?
Jalal's task is to establish full coordination with the Central Asian terrorist groups - the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan*, the Islamic Movement of East Turkestan*, the “Ansarullah” of Tajikistan* and others. They should have a joint intelligence program.
"Intelligence activities in Central Asia and how they are done and their expanses are under Tariq Jalal’s control. There is not even a second person with competence. Only his intelligence team consists of 35 members of Al-Qaeda. Of these, 10 are Arabs and the rest are citizens of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Russia, and Kazakhstan. This team is currently working in Central Asia and has contacts with Tariq Jalal," - the report says.
The second part of the Al-Qaeda program is the education and training of young people in Afghanistan and Central Asia. The organization has a plan to establish three training centers. For now one is active in Nuristan, it has one-month training. In the future, Al-Qaeda intends to increase the level of one-month training in the training center of Nuristan province into two parts: military and intelligence.
In the field of religious education, Al-Qaeda needs a large madrasa (school) in Nuristan province, which has a capacity of five hundred people and education in it lasts for six months to two years. Al-Qaeda has been investing in many schools in Nuristan province for years, but a school that meets the needs of Al-Qaeda has not yet been established. Tariq Jalal is consulting with a group of Salafis on its creation.
"A madrasa that wants to create Tariq Jalal should have rooms for teaching students next to it. For example, in madrasa territory must be ten rooms on two floors for the teaching of students. This is al-Qaeda's long-term plan for the next three years. The plan of a special school has not been taken into account, but Tariq Jalal has said that the opportunity for this year has been lost, because Nuristan province will cool down after autumn and the issue of establishing a madrasa will remain until the spring of 2022," - the report says.
ISIS* and Taliban* under a magnifier
The third part of the Al-Qaeda program is intelligence. According to it, the organization monitors the activities of DAESH* and the Taliban in the northern, eastern-northern provinces of Afghanistan. The organization's analysis suggests that if Taliban leaders deal with big players like China and Russia over Central Asian terrorists, their commanders at the district and provincial levels are likely to pledge allegiance to DAESH.
“The majority of Taliban commanders are illiterate. Currently, the "Taliban" have come to power and are facing economic difficulties, because it is not possible to govern with little money and a lot of funds is needed. As problems increase, petty commanders at the district level are forgotten," - the report said.
A Taliban commander named Qari Abdul Haq from the Shirzad district of Nangarhar province is cited as having a 30-member group. He entered Kabul when the city fell to the Taliban and his group had three police Ranger vehicles. He stayed ten days, got angry, left Kabul, and went to Nangarhar. He was furious that in Kabul he needed 20 000 afghanis a day to pay for people and fuel for his cars, but the money was not paid by Taliban leaders.
"Commanders in Kabul can provide livelihoods and petrol for their cars, if they are very rich in their areas, have their own mines, or smuggle drugs. All these problems are in DAISH/ISIS's favor, and Al-Qaeda is very concerned about it, and its intelligence has paid more attention to identifying such Taliban commanders," - the report says.
The fourth part of the Al-Qaeda program is to establish safe centers and to create safe caves in the mountains. The report says that Tariq Jalal has banned the digging of these caves in Nuristan, because with the withdrawal of the Americans and the rise to power of the "Taliban" - their longtime ally - it is no longer necessary to hide in caves.
However, the report does not say where these caves should be dug - the mountains bordering Afghanistan and Central Asia or Central Asia itself?
Why Nuristan?
Nuristan is geographically a mountainous and impoverished province. The districts where Al-Qaeda is present have been a haven for not only the Taliban but also the DAESH and other terrorist organizations for the past 20 years.
On the other hand, the presence of Salafi Arabs in Nuristan dates back to the Soviet presence in Afghanistan. One of the deputies of Azadbek, leader of the Islamic Unity Party of the Northern Provinces of Afghanistan's deputies, Dr. Arghun who was in Nuristan personally in 1984, told a Sputnik Tajikistan reporter, that Islamic State led by Mawlawi Afzal Salafi was active in Nuristan at that time and was funded by Saudi Arabia.
"Azadbek was tasked in Pakistan to bring eight Saudi Arabs to Nuristan. The Arab group was led by an Uzbek named Noman Toshkandi, who was the Imam al-khatib of the Ibn Abbas Mosque, the third most prestigious mosque in Saudi Arabia (after the Holy and Prophet Mosques). We went to Mawlawi Afzal and handed over the money that the Salafis had given him, and we returned," - said Dr. Arghun.
The founder of Salafism in Afghanistan was Sheikh Jamilurrahman from Kunar, who had Salafi schools in the province until the communist coup of 1978 and received their expenses from Saudi Arabia. Sheikh Jamil was also one of the founders of the Islamic Party of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who later parted ways.
Kunar, Nangarhar, and Nuristan are adjacent, and it is old-fashioned that Al-Qaeda, in particular DAESH, has a foothold in these provinces. Reports from Panjshir, another province bordering Nuristan, are also available to Sputnik Tajikistan, which are not currently available for details.
Qari Azar
The first-person Tariq Jalal met in Nuristan and arranged affairs was a man named Qari Azar from Uzbekistan, who reportedly represents the Uzbek Islamic Movement at Al-Qaeda. He had previously lived in Nuristan and was a military instructor at the Al-Qaeda training center in Kamdish District.
"Before Tariq Jalal came to Nuristan, Al-Qaeda had asked the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan to have an active presence in Nuristan, which is a good place for the families of its members to live. IMU on July 16, 2021 - before the arrival of Tariq Jalal, he established a center in the village of Ghanama, Mandul district, Nuristan province,” - the report says.
Qari Azar, an Uzbekistan citizen, about 40 years old, is the center's leader. He left for northern Afghanistan on April 10, 2021, and returned to Nuristan on July 7, 2021, with a group of Uzbeks.
Al-Qaeda has made a commitment to IMU that pays for its members in Nuristan. Currently, 30 000 afghanis a month have been paid to IMU's 10-member group. There are now three families of IMU members living in Nuristan, one of whom belongs to Qari Azar. Three families of IMU members receive 15 000 afghanis a month from “Al-Qaeda," - the report says.
Al-Qaeda has pledged to IMU a quota in its Nuristan training center for new people and pays for their consumption. IMU, on the other hand, is tasked to coordinate and share its intelligence activities and findings in Afghanistan and Central Asia with Al-Qaeda. They are going to introduce a common intelligence team and coordinate their activities.
"Al-Qaeda” is trying to unite groups from Central Asian countries to move together and this decision was supported by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan," - the report says.
Al-Qaeda centers in Nuristan
Al-Qaeda has three centers in Nuristan province. The main headquarters of Al-Qaeda is located in the village of Arnas, Wont Waigal district, where Tariq Jalal, Al-Qaeda's intelligence chief in Central Asia, is based. The center has a long-distance telecommunication system and is connected to the Shawal Valley of South Waziristan and the Pakistani city of Karachi, where al-Qaeda leaders live.
In addition to members of Tariq Jalal's intelligence team in charge of Al-Qaeda in Central Asia, Sheikh Abdullah (Iraq) in charge of recruiting, his deputy Abu Jarah (Syria), Abu Muhammad (Saudi Arabia) Al-Qaeda’s Red Army commander, Sheikh Hamza (Syria), Tariq Lalal’s, financial officer and Abu Dovud, organization’s chief for Nuristan Province are present in this center.
Al-Qaeda's second stronghold is in the Putigal Valley of Mandul district, where lives four leaders of the organization – Abu Imad (Iraq), Abu al-Hasan (Syria), a member of Al-Qaeda intelligence team in Nuristan province, and Sheikh In'amullah (Uzbekistan), in charge of al-Qaeda relations with Central Asian terrorist groups, are present.
Al-Qaeda's second stronghold is in the Putigal Valley of Mandul district, where 4 leaders of the organization - Abu Imad (Iraq), head of intelligence in the northern, northern-eastern provinces of Afghanistan, Abu Yusuf or Abu Yamin (Iraq), head of Nangarhar province, Abu al-Hasan (Syria), a member of the Nuristan intelligence team and Sheikh Enamullah (Uzbekistan), in charge of relations with Central Asian terrorist groups, live and work.
A Centre in Chily
The third Al-Qaeda Center in the village of Chily, Kamdish District, is a training center, with a capacity of 300 people, and was established on August 12, 2021. There are 10 people in it: Abu Muslim-Saeed (Saudi Arabia), the head of the center and his deputy Abu Yasir (Iraq) and the rest of them are instructors - Mawlavi Hamid (Uzbekistan), Abu Faisal (Iraq), Qari Munir (Uzbekistan), Mawlavi Salam (Tajikistan), Abu Bilal (Syria), Abu Yunus (Yemen), Sheikh Mufleh (Saudi Arabia), Sheikh Kalimullah (Kyrgyzstan).
In the past, Al-Qaeda had a house for members’ presence and activities. Now it has four houses: three are next to each other, and one is 40 meters away from these three houses. In a separate house live only the members of Al-Qaeda, and in the three rooms live the people who came for training," - the report says.
The report was prepared in mid-September, saying no one is currently being trained at the center, either members of Al-Qaeda or members of the Taliban. However, 100 al-Qaeda members from Kunar, Nuristan, and Nangarhar provinces were included in the training program, 30 of whom arrived at the training center from Kunar province on September 9, 2021, and the rest, according to officials, will arrive by the end of September 2021.
“Tariq Jalal said that the training center will remain in Kamdish until the spring of 2022 and will then be transferred to Mandul district of Nuristan province. In Mandul, a special place will be created for the educational center, which will be far from the village and the residential area, out of sight of the people," - the report says.
From guerrilla warfare to the people
The training center will train people in three sections. The first is the military section, which teaches the tactics of guerrilla warfare, the use of various weapons, the construction of mines, and the identification and introduction of Russian, Chinese, and American weapons used throughout Central Asia.
The second part is intelligence, which learns how to gather information, know people psychologically, and introduce the region's intelligence, namely Russia, China, the United States, Europe, and their operational manners.
"There are also training on the use of camera planes, which, according to Al-Qaeda officials in Nuristan province, will soon use this type of device in its intelligence unit," - the report says.
In the third part, Central Asian countries are introduced in terms of ethnicity, language, government, and geography, so that people know which country has what kind of people, government, and ethnicity and where and how they can operate.
Al-Qaeda wants to increase the number of teachers in this training center to 30, who will be instructors in the above-mentioned sections. The head of the training center and his deputy, in addition to being in charge, are also teachers. The instructors recruited for the training will not be all Arabs, but members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the Islamic Movement of East Turkestan, “Ansarullah” of Tajikistan, and “Katiba of Imam Bukhari” have been asked to nominate them.
Opportunities and Challenges
Al-Qaeda no longer sees any danger to its activities after its longtime ally, the Taliban, came to power in Afghanistan. It continues to work easily, including the risk of being bombed or attacked on the ground.
"The only thing that needs to be taken care of and protected is the infiltration of intelligence. According to al-Qaeda officials, the intelligence services of the United States, Russia, China, and India are more active now than ever before. Al-Qaeda is well aware that they are active and exercising caution, and their intelligence service will be active seriously," - the report says.
After the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, the "Autopark" of Al-Qaeda in Nuristan has also been enriched. It used to have 8 motorcycles in the province, which are Japanese "Honda". At the time, Al-Qaeda did not use cars and was afraid of being attacked by air, and used motorcycles.
But now Al-Qaeda has four vehicles in Nuristan province, one of which is a Japanese “Hilux”, located in the village of Arnas, Wont Waigal district, and Tariq Jalal himself travels from one area to another on it. The three remaining cars are "Datsun" type, one of which was located 20 years ago in Mandul district of Nuristan province. The other two belong to the Al-Qaeda training center in the Kamdish district. They are booties of Al-Qaeda's recent battles with Afghan government forces.
A small expense
According to a separate report, Al-Qaeda in August and September 2021 - in Nuristan has spent for food 430, in the intelligence sector - 140, in attracting and distributing money to madrasa preachers and mosque clerics - 480, gasoline for cars and motorcycles - 40, batteries for telecommunications - 50 thousand afghanis (today 1 dollar = 90, 58 afghanis).
“This monetary expenditure is very small because the training center has not yet started its activities and the Al-Qaeda operational program, which it has in Central Asia, has not started yet. If all the programs are implemented, the expenses of Al-Qaeda will be very high, and the neighboring provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar will also receive their expenses from Nuristan province from Tariq Jalal," - the report says.
Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations have been preparing to enter Central Asia, Russia, and China since the 1980s. Some of their efforts (through the war in Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, and Chechniya) had failed. But how successful they will be this time, especially when their local partner and supporter, the Taliban, has taken over Afghanistan again is a question of the future.
* The organization is under UN sanctions for terrorist activities
