NS Suicide attack on a mosque in Kunduji Last week, the killing of at least 50 people, all of whom were from Afghanistan’s oppressed Shia minority, is a grim reminder that the conflict in the country is not over. The Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K), the Afghanistan-based branch of the terrorist organization, has claimed responsibility. The ideological hatred of IS towards Shias is well known. In Iraq and Syria, it systematically targets Shias, whom it calls “rejectists” of the faith, and uses such attacks to mobilize support for Sunni fundamentalists and trigger sectarian conflicts. The Kunduz blast was the third major attack by IS since the Taliban captured Kabul on August 15. A few days later, an IS suicide squad attacked Kabul airport when thousands of Afghans were trying to flee the country, killing at least 170 Afghans and 13 American Soldiers. On 3 October, a bomb was targeted at a mosque in Kabul for the mother of Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid. kill five. All these attacks show that IS-K’s attack capability has increased. The group, which began operating in Afghanistan’s eastern provinces after the 2015-2016 aftershocks in Iraq and Syria, is no longer confined to the East.
When the Taliban seized power in 1996, their main promise was to provide protection to those who were going through nearly two decades of civil war. The Taliban took control of about 90% of the country and established order through the implementation of their brutal code. This time, the Taliban have control over almost the entire country, but are still struggling to establish order. There are many examples of direct fighting between Taliban and IS-K jihadists. The Taliban is an enemy of IS-K, which seeks to take advantage of its sectarian wounds and security vacuum to gain a foothold in Afghanistan. While both groups have used terror tactics, IS-K is a pan-Islamic jihadist organization, while the Taliban is a largely Pashtun nationalist extremist. The rise of IS-K presented many challenges to the Taliban’s rule over Afghanistan, which was seen by many in Afghanistan and Pakistan as a solution to the country’s security problems. On the one hand, his promise of providing security seems hollow. Cities in Afghanistan under the Taliban are as vulnerable as they were under the previous Islamic Republic. On the other hand, even if the Taliban, under pressure from Afghan donors and the public, want to make some concessions on many of the sanctions already imposed, they will come under pressure from the more extremist IS-K, which says the Taliban are not Islamist enough. For the people of Afghanistan trapped between the devil and the deep blue sea, the war that began 40 years ago continues, no matter who is in power in Kabul.
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