The Pakistan Navy War College, Lahore, celebrated its 50th anniversary, last month. The Pakistan Navy War course conducted by this prestigious College is ten months long and includes a number of industrial visits, military exercises and a foreign tour. Approximately 70 students, majority of them from the Pakistan Navy and two each from the Pakistan Army and Air Force attend the course besides 10 officers from friendly countries. I followed the 24th course in 1995/96. The College was then located in Karachi and known as ‘Pakistan Navy Staff College’.
Foreign officers and their families were provided with accommodation. I was there with my family. My son was only three-years-old and he started attending Kindergarten while I was following the course.
Pakistan military personnel are very fond of their Sri Lankan counterparts. They always help us. Thanks to a generous stipend from Sri Lanka, we lived very comfortably in Karachi and I had the opportunity to take part in Inter-Staff College sports activities.
Out of the distinguished foreign alumni of the War College, eight officers commanded their navies during the last 50 years—Major General Rowland Leslie Makandu of Tanzania Navy in 1989, Staff Brigadier Khaflan Al Room UAE Navy in 1996, Major General Said Shusan Omary Tanzania Navy in 2006, Staff Major General M Al Muhammad Ahmed UAE Navy in 2005, First Admiral Dato Seri Pahlawan Haji Othman Bin Hj Suhaili Royal Brunei Navy in 2005, Rear Admiral Houssain Khamzadi Islamic Republic of Iran Navy in 2007 and Colonel Hishan Kharkiv Aljarrah Royal Jordanian in Navy 2013. I became the Commander of the Navy of Sri Lanka in 2015. I am the only foreign alumnus to become a Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) of the Armed Forces. Further, I am the only recipient of the highest medal awarded by Pakistan – Nishan-e-Imtiyaz (Military) medal (Order of Excellence) from the Pakistan President at a special investiture Ceremony in February 2019 in Islamabad.
I was invited to the celebrations as a guest of the Pakistan Navy Chief.
The Golden Jubilee celebrations commenced with the alumni dinner. The Chief Guest was Admiral Muhammad Amjad Khan Niazi, the Chief of Naval Staff, Pakistan. He has been the Commandant of PN War College.
Seated next to me was a tall, very smart elderly gentleman who introduced him self as “Vice Admiral Tasnim retired from the Pakistan Navy”. During our brief conversation at dinner, he mentioned that he was 86 years old and he had undergone his basic naval training at Britannia Royal Naval College (BRNC), Dartmouth, UK with “Midshipman Asoka De Silva” in 1950! I immediately recognised his class.
Old Royalist rugby player Asoka de Silva represented Navy Rugby team as full back. He has commanded ships and craft and served in high positions in Trincomalee, Jaffna and Naval Headquarters. When he was Chief of Staff of our Navy, he encouraged me to join them.
Admiral Asoka de Silva was the 9th Navy Commander of Sri Lanka from 1983 to 1986. His son, Sajith, was one year senior to me at Royal, and we both were keen scouts. Vice Admiral Tasnim said he had been in PN Staff College serving as Directing Staff member (instructor) and later became the Commandant.
That night with the intention of finding more details about this veteran Pakistan Naval officer, I consulted Google Guru. I keyed in “Vice Admiral Tasnim of Pakistan Navy”. What a surprise!
He and his crew became heroes in the 1971 Indo-Pakistan War. He Commanded Pakistan Navy Submarine PNS Hangor and patrolled the Arabian Sea.
However, naval action was somewhat different. Indian Admirals towed three missile boats by bigger war ships and targeted the Karachi port and fuel tanks there; the port was in flames for many days.
However, the action of Pakistan Navy Submarine PNS Hangor (S- 131) (nickname Shark) led to the sinking of Indian Navy ASW Frigate on 9 Dec 1971 off the Gujarat coast. It was the first time following the World War ll, a submarine was able to sink a warship!
The then Lt. Commander Ahmad Tasnim was the submarine Commander. It is very difficult for surface ships to detect submarines. Main sensor on surface-and-air warfare does not work underwater as electro-magnetic waves (radar) do not travel through water. Electro-magnetic waves move at the speed of light in air. Therefore, we use sound waves, which, however, have a very limited range.
INS Khukhri Sunk By Pakistan Navy’s Submarine PNS Hangor
The speed of sound moving through water depends on three factors—pressure (which increases with depth), temperature and salinity. The greater the pressure, the higher the speed. The same is true of temperature and salinity. So, detecting a submarine by using equipment called SONAR is a very difficult task. There are two types of SONARs– active and passive. Active SONARs are the ones that transmit sound waves and enable us to listen to the echo of the target. Passive SONARs are just hydrophones that help us listen to under water sounds. (The present-day Bangladesh Navy Chief (Admiral Sheen Iqbal) and I were Anti Submarine Warfare (ASW) specialists, following the same course in 1989/90 at ASW school, Cochin, India.)
During the 1971 war, on 09 December Pakistan Submarine PNS Hangor targeted two Indian Frigates, INS Khukri and INS Kirpan . INS Khukri was sunk with two torpedoes whereas INS Kirpan survived the attack. The Captain of the sinking Indian Ship Khukri, Captain Mahendra Nath Mullar decided to go down with the ship following the tradition of seafarers. He was awarded with second highest gallantry medal of India, Maha Vir Chakra (MVC) posthumously. INS Khukri is the only ship Indian Navy has lost in battle to date. Eighteen officers and 176 sailors of Indian Navy died in this attack. Only 64 survived.
There is so much to learn from sea battles. The Sri Lanka Navy also should also build up a small submarine unit as Bangladesh and Myanmar have done.
Muhammad Mansoor Mohiuddin led a US team that successfully transplanted the heart of a genetically modified pig into a gravely ill man
The surgery raised ethical questions – given Mohiuddin’s Islamic faith – but none of that worried his former colleagues, who remembered him as an ace student
Surgeon Muhammad Mansoor Mohiuddin (centre) led a US team that successfully transplanted the heart of a genetically modified pig into a man. Photo: EPA-EFE/UMSOM
Friends and former classmates of the Pakistan-born surgeon behind the world’s first pig-to-human heart transplant say they earmarked him for greatness from his medical school days.
Karachi-born Muhammad Mansoor Mohiuddin made headlines last week as the co-founder of the US university programme that successfully transplanted the heart of a genetically modified pig into a gravely ill American man.
While hailed as a medical breakthrough, the procedure also raised ethical questions – particularly among some Jews and Muslims, who consider pigs to be unclean and avoid pork products.
None of that worried Mohiuddin’s friends and former colleagues in Pakistan, who remember him as an ace student with a passion for medicine.
“He would be so interested, always there, always available and always ready to get involved in surgery,” said Muneer Amanullah, a specialist who attended Karachi’s Dow Medical College with Mohiuddin in the 1980s.
Dr Muneer Amanullah attended Karachi’s Dow Medical College with Muhammad Mansoor Mohiuddin in the 1980s. Photo: AFP
College vice-chancellor Muhammad Saeed Qureshi said pride in Mohiuddin’s achievement had flooded the campus.
“There was exhilaration that this has been done by a graduate from this college,” he said.
Mohiuddin was quick to share the limelight with a team of 50 from the University of Maryland Medical School.
“They were all experts of their respective fields,” he said by phone.
“They are the best surgeons, the best physicians, the best anaesthetists, and so on.”
In religion, no deed is as supreme as saving a human life Mohiuddin, transplant surgeon
While the prognosis for the recipient of the pig’s heart is far from certain, the surgery represents a major milestone for animal-to-human transplants.
About 110,000 Americans are currently waiting for an organ transplant, and more than 6,000 patients die each year before getting one, according to official figures.
To meet demand, doctors have long been interested in so-called xenotransplantation, or cross-species organ donation.
“We were working on this model for 18 years,” Mohiuddin said.
“Those 18 years were dotted with different phases of frustration – as well as breakthroughs – but finally we have done it.”
Karachi’s Dow Medical College where doctor Muhammad Mansoor Mohiuddin studied. Photo: AFP
The surgery is not without controversy, however, especially given Mohiuddin’s Islamic faith.
Pigs are considered unclean by Muslims and Jews – and even some Christians who follow the Bible’s Old Testament literally.
“In my view, this is not permissible for a Muslim,” said Javed Ahmed Ghamdi, a prominent Islamic scholar, in a video blog where he discussed the procedure.
But another Islamic scholar in Pakistan gave the procedure a clean bill of health.
“There is no prohibition in sharia,” Allama Hasan Zafar Naqvi said, calling it a “medical miracle”.
“In religion, no deed is as supreme as saving a human life,” added Mohiuddin.
In Karachi, the surgeon’s fellow alumni feel their former colleague may now be destined for even greater glory – medicine’s top prize.
“I think … the whole team is in for it, in for the Nobel Prize,” said vice-chancellor Qureshi.
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US doctors transplant gene-edited pig heart into human in medical first
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America, Russia and NATO’s Geneva diplomatic talks ended in failure without any formal course of action to avoid military confrontation on Ukraine’s border. Other vital issues include how to treat each other in a futuristic imaginary encounter of common interests. The global community is watching the prelude to a staged drama of unwarranted warfare with profligacy, malevolence and unknown miseries of unthinkable multitudes. All the superpowers — the stage actors of the 21st century have fictitious monsters equipped with innovative sophistry and captivating eloquence to talk about peace, security, human rights, global order and justice. They are master of deception playing on the passion of entrenched and exhausted mankind as if they could stop the emerging pains, horrors and devastations of warmongering to ensure a return to normalization of human affairs. To an inner human analytical eye encompassing proactive sense of global peace and harmony, it does not appear rational to articulate fears and misleading intentions to safeguard human peace and dignity while all the actions speak of a different language of obsessed assertions based on their own despotic national interests.
They claim peace but talk about threats of wars — how to rationalize the irony of human wickedness and inherent deception. Was the same stage drama not enacted during the First and 2nd World Wars killings millions and millions of people across this Planet Earth?
Human progress and future-making are jeopardized when lessons of history are deliberately misinterpreted and ignored by the paranoid, vengeful and suspicious leaders. If war is the only avenue to seek peace, we are on the wrong side of history and thinking of our future. It took several centuries to Europeans to understand the false shadows of apprehension of peace and harmony and to come to terms with nation-building, some resemblance of democracy, human equality of rights and unity for future-making via the EU. A reasoned perspective would illustrate that Russia after breakdown of the former USSR is not the same inheriting entity of Communist authoritarian ideology, leadership, institutions, political thought, policies and practices within the working systems of global order. There are visible progressive movements for political change, open communications, elections, institutional developments and global interactions and seeking reunion with the global order, UNO, world institutions, friendly relationships with adversaries and balanced socio-economic ties with others. To enlarge the scope of reason and understanding, Russia needs formidable change as it appears to be forging on different national strategic interests; its position on Ukraine is not the same as eluded by most NATO members. Ukraine and Russia have common geography and history just like Britain, France and Germanyhave. Would it not be a matter of extreme political-strategic sensitivity if other perceived enemies would dare to come close to military confrontations in Western Europe? It is logical that true friends of humanity will not act blindly to cause wild uproars and evil-mongering against the people anywhere on this planet.
Is NATO relevant to the 21st Century Emerging Conflicts
The focal issue seems to be the prospective membership of Ukraine to the community of NATO in Western Europe. America and Russia and other EU members enjoin conflicting views on this issue. Ukraine claims its freedom to join any international organizations for its betterment, peace and security. Russia and America should not be concerned except that they want to draw certain strategic gains out of this chaotic perceived tragedy of futuristic warfare. After the dreadful consequences of the Two World Wars, NATO was formed by the Europeans to maintain peace and security and avoid futuristic unwarranted national wars within the European hemisphere. Its formation and scope is limited to nationalistic conventional warfare in the European theatre.
One wonders, what wars did NATO fight to protect its ideals and strategic priorities after the 1945 WW? What NATO had to do with Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya? Were these accidental engagements or simply an extension of planned mischievous catastrophic instances of tyranny against the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and elsewhere who never posed any threat to NATO, America or to any Western European nations?
American and European leaders pushed soldiers to fight unwanted draconian wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and other parts of the Middle East.
Millions of innocent Afghans, Iraqi and Libyan civilians and Western troops were killed during the US-led NATO wars in these regions.
Could any American-European leaders explain why every day approximately 18-25 US war veterans commit suicides? (“Why Do Soldiers Commit Suicide and Global Warlords.” Uncommon Thought Journal, USA).
How would one rationalize the role and actions of NATO in a global theater of strategic interests? The history of NATO and its plans and ideological motives are equally distorted and disfigured on the global screen of reason, honesty and accountability. Russia overtook eastern parts of Ukraine — Crimea by forces aligned to Russian speaking masses and trying to integrate those territories into the Russian federation. This issue has been discussed between Russian President Putin, former German Chancellor Merkel and French President Macron on several occasions. Could America, Russia and Europeans not talk again for a peaceful resolution of this and other related problems?
Looking for Hope of Peace Beyond the Lens of Geopolitics
Scott Ritter (is a former Marine Corps intelligence officer who served in the former Soviet Union implementing arms control treaties, in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm, and in Iraq overseeing the disarmament of WMD): What War with Russia Look Like (Global Research: 01/11/2022): explains the irony of current affairs:
If the U. S. tries to build up NATO forces on Russia’s western frontiers in the aftermath of any Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia will then present Europe with a fait accompli in the form of what would now be known as the “Ukrainian model.” In short, Russia will guarantee that the Ukrainian treatment will be applied to the Baltics, Poland, and even Finland, should it be foolish enough to pursue NATO membership. Russia won’t wait until the U. S. has had time to accumulate sufficient military power, either. Russia will simply destroy the offending party through the combination of an air campaign designed to degrade the economic function of the targeted nation, and a ground campaign designed to annihilate the ability to wage war. Russia does not need to occupy the territory of NATO for any lengthy period-just enough to destroy whatever military power has been accumulated by NATO near its borders.
Is NATO being managed by those people who lived in the distant past and perhaps post WW2 historic culture is still alive and flourishing? Is there any glimpse of hope for change and new reasoned relationships between America, Russia and West European people? The future of violence and nationalistic resentment looks embedded into the distorted strategic necessities of the current affairs, be it the argument of Russia or American-led NATO and or the EU on its own. NATO is run by the wrong people, glued to wrong thinking and doing the wrong things without any rational sense of time, people’s interest and history. Craig Murray (NATO-an idea Whose Time has Gone), a former British diplomat and Rector of the University of Dundee, UK, foresees the body as obsolete to emerging strategic thinking and needs of the Western alliance:
It is also the case that the situation in countries where NATO has been most active in killing people, including Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan and Pakistan, has deteriorated. It has deteriorated politically, economically, militarily and socially. The notion that NATO member states could bomb the world into good was only ever believed by crazed and fanatical people like Tony Blair and Jim Murphy of the Henry Jackson Society. It really should not have needed empirical investigation to prove it was wrong, but it has been tried, and has been proved wrong….NATO’s attempt to be global arbiter and enforcer has been disastrous at all levels. Its plan to redeem itself by bombing the Caliphate in Iraq and Syria is a further sign of madness. Except of course that it will guarantee some blowback against Western targets, and that will “justify” further bombings, and yet more profit for the arms manufacturers. On that level, it is very clever and cynical. NATO provides power to the elite and money to the wealthy.
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was US Assistant Secretary of the Treasury and is author The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West, How America Was Lost, and The Neoconservative Threat to World Order. “Provocations Have A History Of Escalating Into War: Can War Be Avoided and the Planet Saved?” Information Clearing House: (8/31/2018), strikes a proactive caution to all Western policy makers:
The Zionist neoconservatives who rule in Washington are capable of the same mistake that Napoleon and Hitler made. They believe in “the end of history,” that the Soviet collapse means history has chosen America as the model for the future. Their hubris actually exceeds that of Napoleon and Hitler. When confronted with such deluded and ideological force, does turning the other cheek work or does it encourage more provocation.
Every beginning has its end. America needs Navigational Change after January 6, 2021 Trump’s Revolutionary attack on democracy and the Constitution, and so does Russia and NATO in their search for peaceful transition to sustainable future-making. We, the People of global community live on one floating Planet Earth, and we must be conscious — who we are, how connected we are in human solidarity and where are we heading to in our imagination of the present and future. It is awful and a tragedy of human conscience to be speaking of military conflicts and territorial gains when mankind urgently needs an effective cure for the Covid-19 pandemic. George Floyd cries continues to be heard all over the globe: “I can’t’ breathe.” We are One People, One Humanity— ignorance, natural disasters, and man-made fatalities know not any borders, flags and nationalities but surge like wildfire as being witnessed in the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide. Again political absolutism heightens animosity and hatred rather than human understanding and cooperation for a precious cause of saving human lives on Earth. To save life of one human being is to safeguard the whole of humanity. We are all born equal One Humanity: — the Divine Message of Al-Qur’an clarifies the truth:
“Proclaim in the name of thy Lord and Cherisher, Who created, Created man (human being) out of a (mere) clot of congealed blood, Proclaim! And thy Lord is Most Bountiful, He Who taught (the use of) the Pen, Taught man (human being) that which he knew not.”
This analysis of IS-K was published in 2018 and is not being updated. For a more recent analysis of Islamic State Khorasan from the Transnational Threats Project, please click here.
Figure 1: Afghan security forces patrol during ongoing clashes between security forces and Islamic State militants in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan. NOORULLAH SHIRZADA/AFP/Getty Images
Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K) is the Islamic State’s Central Asian province and remains active three years after its inception. The Islamic State announced its expansion to the Khorasan region in 2015, which historically encompasses parts of modern day Iran, Central Asia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.1 Despite initial skepticism about the group’s existence from analysts and government officials alike, IS-K has been responsible for nearly 100 attacks against civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as roughly 250 clashes with the U.S., Afghan, and Pakistani security forces since January 2017.2 Though IS-K has yet to conduct attacks against the U.S. homeland, the group represents an enduring threat to U.S. and allied interests in South and Central Asia. This backgrounder is an overview of the history, leadership, and current strategic goals of IS-K.
Formation and Relationship with ISIS Core
In 2014, Pakistani national Hafiz Saeed Khan was chosen to spearhead IS-K province as its first emir.3 Khan, a veteran Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commander, brought along other prominent TTP members—including the group’s spokesman Sheikh Maqbool and many district chiefs—when he initially pledged allegiance to al-Baghdadi in October 2014. Many of these individuals were included in the first Khorasan Shura or leadership council.4
IS-K’s early membership included a contingent of Pakistani militants who emerged in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province around 2010, just across the border from the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan.5 Many of these militants were estranged members of TTP and Lashkar-e Islam, who had fled Pakistan to escape pressure from security forces.6 The appointment of Khan as IS-K’s first emir, and former Taliban commander Abdul Rauf Khadim as his deputy, further facilitated the group’s growth, utilizing long established recruitment networks in Afghanistan and Pakistan.7 According to the Combatting Terrorism Center at West Point, as of 2017, some members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the Haqqani Network, and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) had also defected to IS-K.8
IS-K has received support from the Islamic State’s core leadership in Iraq and Syria since its founding in 2015. As the Islamic State loses territory, it has increasingly turned to Afghanistan as a base for its global caliphate.9 Following IS-K’s official pledge of allegiance to the Islamic State’s global “ummah,” Islamic State wilayats (or provinces) in Iraq and Syria publicly announced their congratulations for the movement’s expansion into Central Asia through media statements and videos.10 To that end, the Islamic State has invested some financial resources in its Khorasan province—as much as several hundred thousand dollars—to improve its networks and organization in Central Asia.11 Additionally, a recent United Nations publication commented that “[ISIS] core continues to facilitate the relocation of some of its key operatives to Afghanistan,” including Abu Qutaiba, the Islamic State’s former leader in Iraq’s Salah al-Din province.12 Afghanistan remains a top destination for foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs) in the region, as well as for fighters leaving battlefields in the Levant.13 IS-K’s public affairs prowess, global prestige, and sustained resources facilitate the recruitment of these FTFs, drawing them away from other militant movements.
Figure 2: IS-K fighters graduating Abu Umar al-Shishani training camp in Kunar province, Afghanistan in December 2017.14
Leadership and Strategy
IS-K founding emir, Hafiz Saeed Khan, was killed by a United States airstrike in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, on July 26, 2016.15 Following Khan’s death, IS-K has had three subsequent emirs, all of whom have also been eliminated by the United States in targeted strikes: Abdul Hasib was killed in April 2017; Abu Sayed was killed on July 11, 2017; and most recently, Abu Saad Orakzai was killed on August 25, 2018.16 These leaders, as well as those at the district and provincial levels, generally possessed meaningful experience with local militant movements in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan prior to joining IS-K.
IS-K’s overarching strategy includes local and global objectives. In a 2015 video series, IS-K’s media office declared that “There is no doubt that Allah the Almighty blessed us with jihad in the land of Khorasan since a long time ago, and it is from the grace of Allah that we fought any disbeliever who entered the land of Khorasan. All of this is for the sake of establishing the Shariah.” It went on to declare, “Know that the Islamic Caliphate is not limited to a particular country. These young men will fight against every disbeliever, whether in the west, east, south, or north.”17 Like the Islamic State’s core leadership in Iraq and Syria, IS-K seeks to establish a Caliphate beginning in South and Central Asia, governed by sharia law, which will expand as Muslims from across the region and world join. IS-K disregards international borders and envisions its territory transcending nation-states like Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Furthermore, its global aspirations include “[raising] the banner of al-Uqab above Jerusalem and the White House,” which equates to the defeat of both Israel and the United States.18 IS-K’s ideology seeks to rid its territory of foreign “crusaders” who “proselytize Muslims” as well as “apostates,” which include anyone from Sunni Afghan National Army recruits to Hazara Shias.19 While there is no evidence that Islamic Khorasan has been involved in plotting against the U.S. homeland, it has mocked and threatened the United States in its official media streams and called for lone-wolf attacks in the West.20
IS-K seeks to establish a Caliphate beginning in South and Central Asia, governed by sharia law, which will expand as Muslims from across the region and world join.
IS-K carries out its global strategy in different operating environments by curating it to local conditions. Consider, for example, the divided region of Kashmir. It sits at the top of the Indian subcontinent and serves as a flashpoint for conflict between historically feuding nuclear powers, Pakistan and India. With nationalistic leaders dominating politics in both Islamabad and New Delhi, perpetual unrest in the disputed territories, and precedent of state-sponsored terrorism, Kashmir is fertile ground for future IS-K subversion.21,22 In Afghanistan and Pakistan, IS-K’s strategy seeks to delegitimize the governments and degrade public trust in democratic processes, sowing instability in nation-states, which the group views as illegitimate. Recently, in the lead up to 2018 parliamentary elections in Afghanistan, IS-K warned citizens in Nangarhar province, “We caution the Muslims in the province from approaching election centers, and we recommend that they stay away from them so as to safeguard their blood, as these are legitimate targets for us.”23 IS-K claimed multiple attacks on “elections centers” and security forces during the Afghan parliamentary elections, following through on their warning to “sabotage the polytheistic process and disrupt it.”24
Operations and Tactics
According to the CSIS Transnational Threats Project’s recent report on Salafi-jihadist groups, IS-K has a fighting force of between 600 and 800 militants as of October 2018. These numbers are down from peak levels in 2016 when its fighting force numbered between 3,000 to 4,000 militants.[25] Despite the decrease in known fighters, the IS-K continues to plot and carry out high-level attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan and attempts to export its violent ideology to the West.26 For example, IS-K released congratulatory videos after the 2016 Islamic State inspired attacks in Orlando, Florida, and Magnanville, France, and subsequently released additional footage pleading for further lone-wolf attacks in the West.27
Despite the aforementioned efforts to inspire attacks abroad, IS-K’s violence remains largely localized. Since January 2017, IS-K has executed 84 attacks against civilians in Afghanistan and 11 in Pakistan. In Afghanistan, 819 civilians have been killed across 15 provinces, with the highest levels of violence in Kabul and Nangarhar.28 IS-K focused on Kabul and key provincial capitals during the October 2018 parliamentary elections, and future attacks are likely to follow a similar pattern; with presidential elections scheduled for 2019, IS-K “sleeper cells” will continue to plan “visible and disruptive attacks” in Kabul, Herat, and Jalalabad.29 In Pakistan, IS-K is responsible for the deaths of 338 civilians since January 2017, largely a result of attacks targeting electoral and sectarian institutions.30 These tactics in Afghanistan and Pakistan further demonstrate IS-K’s localized strategy aimed at delegitimizing existing states, degrading trust in democracy, exploiting sectarianism, and sowing instability in its areas of influence.
Inter-Group Competition in Khorasan
Islamic State core’s decision to formally expand into South and Central Asia was premised on the region’s existing networks for recruitment and weak governance, as well as the group’s financial flexibility from success in Iraq and Syria. However, IS-K’s hostility towards Pakistan, indiscriminate takfiri violence, and willingness to exploit local grievances has mounted considerable aversion to the Islamic State in Pakistan and Afghanistan.31 Its expansion sparked violent conflict and rivalry between IS-K and some of the region’s existing militant organizations, most notably the Afghan Taliban.32
Figure 3: IS-K & Taliban Clashes 2017-201833
Since January 2017, the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) has recorded 207 clashes between IS-K and the Afghan Taliban.[34] These clashes occurred in 14 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, though the majority took place in Nangarhar, Jowzjan, and Kunar provinces. Clashes in Nangarhar and Kunar are to be expected, as these provinces lay on the border with Pakistan and have served as bases of operation for IS-K since its founding. Violence in Jowzjan, however, largely stems from the defection of former Taliban and IMU commander Qari Hekmatullah, who pledged allegiance to IS-K in 2016. Hekmatullah’s networks in Jowzjan facilitated the Islamic State’s expansion in the province through March 2018, but following Hekmatullah’s death by U.S. airstrike in April 2018, the Taliban resurged.35 In recent months, the Taliban claims to have achieved “exemplary defeat” of IS-K in Jowzjan.36
U.S. policy indicates the recognition of—and response to—the threat posed by IS-K and the escalating violence it has provoked in Central Asia. The U.S. Department of State designated IS-K as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on January 14, 2016, and United States Central Command has escalated its air campaign against the group since 2016 when rules of engagement expanded under President Obama and President Trump.38 According to data compiled by ACLED, U.S. and NATO airstrikes against IS-K have been conducted over 300 times since January 2017. Though the group’s presence across Afghanistan is increasing, airstrikes have been nearly exclusive to Nangarhar and Kunar provinces (96 percent of all airstrikes since January 2017) in an effort to target operational bases and leadership.39 All in all, while IS-K’s goal of establishing an Islamic state in Central Asia remains improbable, its propensity for exploiting grievances, catalyzing instability, and taking advantage of ungoverned spaces will make peaceful reconciliation and nation-building in Afghanistan difficult for the foreseeable future.
This terrorism backgrounder was compiled by Clayton Sharb with assistance from Danika Newlee and the CSIS iDeas Lab.
Imran KhanPrime Minister of PakistanTHE rise and fall of nations are different from the rise and fall of civilizations. Nations can be raided, redrawn or re-imagined exogenously but civilizations cannot be killed from the outside, they only commit suicide.
The core of every civilization is its spiritual principles; when they die, the civilization dies. In Islamic civilization, the manifestation of our spiritual principles happened in the Prophet’s (saw) Madina.
Besides many other important principles, there were five very important guiding principles upon which the state of Madina was built. These principles are unity, justice & rule of law leading to meritocracy, strong moral and ethical foundation, inclusion of all humans in progress and prosperity, and finally, the quest for knowledge. To help revive the spirit of the covenant of Madina, National Rahmatul Lil ‘Alamin Authority (NRA) has been formed.
The first principle which laid the foundation for Riyasat-i-Madina was of unity. The idea of unity (Tawhid) comes from the Quran and in a sense, the entire religion is based on that. From unity of God to unity of mankind, it is the most fundamental principle of Islam.
Remember that our Prophet, who was mercy for all mankind, unified people of diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds into a single community. Besides Muslims, there were Christians, Jews, Sabeans and other groups who were all woven into a unitary communal whole under the state of Madina.
The second founding principle was Rule of Law which resulted in justice and meritocracy. The Prophet (saw) made it clear that no one was above the law. He said that nations perish when two sets of laws exist, one for the rich and another for the poor:
“O people, those who came before you were destroyed because if a person of high status committed theft among them, they would spare him, but if a person of lower status committed theft, they would apply the punishment upon him. By Allah, if Fatima the daughter of Muhammad were to steal, I would have cut off her hand.” [Sahih Muslim 1688]
If one looks at the world today, one can easily witness that most successful states also have the most robust application of the rule of law.
Be-sides several Western nations, one witnesses those East Asian economies that have recently prospered, strictly practiced this principle. Japan, China, South Korea are good examples.
Whereas in those nations where rule of law was sub-verted, seem to be sinking into poverty and chaos. In many countries of the Muslim world, despite the prevalence of tremendous resources, there is less progress, which is attributable to lack of rule of law. Another good example is South Asia. In today’s India, the apartheid rule of law has immediately brought about poverty and countless insurgencies that threaten the union of their country. In Pakistan, not adhering to the rule of law has led to siphoning off of billions of US dollars which has imposed collective poverty on our public.
The pattern of politics and devel-opment in many countries of Africa and Latin American suggest the same. The so-called ba-nana republics are the way they are because of lack of rule of law. This cause and effect relation-ship between rule of law and socio-political harmony cannot be emphasized enough.
The third founding principle of Riyasat-i-Madina was of an ethical and moral transforma-tion of the people – the concept of Amr-bil-maroof-wa-nahi-an-al-munkar (doing good, for-bidding evil). The Holy Quran declares it as the defining mission for the Ummah:
You are the best community that has been raised for mankind. You enjoin good and forbid evil and you believe in Allah. [Aal-e-Imran, 3:110].
Enjoining what is good and forbidding what is evil is a collective duty that leads to moral trans-formation of a society.
Nobody would dispute this principle, but there are elements in our soci-ety that are of the opinion that ethical develop-ment of people should be left to the people, the state should remain neutral about good and evil as conceived by religion.
This approach is quite outmoded and problematic because it handcuffs the state from performing its ethical and moral duties and allows adversaries of the country to come in with handfuls of money and subvert our values using our own educational systems and channels of information. NRA will endeavor to engage in amrbilmaaroof by teaching seerat-al-nabi (saw) to our youth in schools and universi-ties in the hope to raise the level the ethics and morals in our society.
The fourth founding principle was of inclusive development through creation of a welfare state where society takes care of its poor and vulner-able and everyone is a stakeholder in the devel-opment of society and state.
State of medina was first recorded welfare state of mankind where the state took responsibility of its weak. Since we must emulate the example of our blessed Prophet (saw), our citizens should learn to be strict with themselves and generous with others.
Keep in mind, however, that in recent times the idea of welfare state has been colored by the Western European experience. Indeed, the West created impressive welfare systems from 1950s to 2010s, of which the most impressive were the Scandinavian ones.
However, most of the West-ern welfare states were not sustainable envi-ronmentally because these were very high con-sumption societies that produced enormous waste. If the whole of non-West were to copy these welfare states, then our pattern of produc-tion, consumption and waste would resemble theirs, and by some estimates it would require us six more planet earths to act as sinks that would absorb our waste.
Such a welfare state is neither possible nor desirable. Since Islam is the middle path, only moderate prosperity and consump-tion would be ideal, just enough to fulfill our ba-sic needs with dignity and honor, with universal health care and education.
And finally, a knowledge-based society that doesn’t confound literacy with knowledge. Liter-acy may lead to illuminative knowledge that may guide us to good behavior, but some of the high-est crime zones of the world also have very high literacy rates. One must not lose sight of an im-portant historical fact that nearly all scholars of early and medieval Islam had deep roots in spiri-tuality.
Hence literacy alone may not be sufficient for a happy society. Knowledge with spiritual trans-formation from cradle to grave is important. All sources that impact human behavior should dis-seminate knowledge which produces self-control, self-discipline, patience, forbearance, tolerance and a spirit of service and volunteer-ism.
Lastly, in the light of our ideals, we have em-barked on the road to the welfare state with some great initiatives.
Despite tight financial means, we allocated unprecedented amount of money to our initiatives such as the Ehsaas Pro-gram which was launched back in 2019. Ehsaas Program isa social safety and poverty alleviation program necessary for the vulnerable groups in society.
This was one of our key initiatives to-wards building a state that cares about the wel-fare of our citizens. By far, one of the greatest programs in history of Pakistan is the Sehat Sa-hulat Program which offers our citizens univer-sal health coverage. This is not just to protect vulnerable households from sinking into poverty who often borrow money for medical treatment, but it also leads to a network of private sector hospitals all over the country, thus benefiting both the public as well as the private sectors in the field of health.
Just Punjab government alone has allocated Rs. 400 billion rupees for this. The Sehat Sahulat Programis an important milestone towards our social welfare reforms. It makes sure that certain low-income groups in Pakistan may have access to their entitled medical health care quickly and honorably without accruing many financial obligations. In the wake of global economic hardship brought about in the post-COVID era, we have not neglected the fast trans-forming educational arena.
Our Ehsaas scholar-ship program would ensure that talented stu-dents within the underprivileged and poor strata of society would get a chance to pursue decent education that would augment their chances of getting better livelihoods. This program com-bined with all our other scholarships amounts to six million scholarships worth Rs. 47 billion. This too is unprecedented in the educational history of Pakistan.
In conclusion, I will reiterate that the most ur-gent of all challenges facing our country right now is the struggle to establish the rule of law. Over the last 75 years of Pakistan’s history, our country has suffered from elite capture, where powerful and crooked politicians, cartels and mafias have become accustomed to being above the law in order to protect their privileges gained through a corrupt system.
While protecting their privileges they have corrupted state institutions, especially those institutions of the state that are responsible for upholding the rule of law. Such individuals, cartels and mafias are parasites who are not loyal to our country and defeating them is absolutely necessary in order to unleash the real potential of Pakistan.
Pakistan military personnel are very fond of their Sri Lankan counterparts. They always help us. Thanks to a generous stipend from Sri Lanka, we lived very comfortably in Karachi and I had the opportunity to take part in Inter-Staff College sports activities.
