In what looks like a bid to extend its influence in the South Asian region, so-called Islamic State (IS) militants have allegedly distributed 12-page pamphlets in the north-west of Pakistan, in Peshawar and in Afghan refugee camps based near its outskirts, it was reported in early September.
They were written in Pashto and Dari, and titled Fatah (Victory) The editor’s name, however, appears fake and their place of publication obscure. For a long time, Afghan resistance groups, including the Haqqani Network, Hizb-e-Islami Afghanistan and the Tora Bora group have published similar pamphlets, magazines and propaganda literature in Peshawar’s black markets. However this latest spread has raised fears of a possible link between IS and such militants, threatening all non-Muslims.
Military offensive
As the IS declared a caliphate in areas of Iraq and Syria, Pakistan launched a joint military offensive to end a ‘caliphate’ apparently set up by a Pakistani Taliban cluster of over 35 groups, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), in north Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas along its Afghan border. A number of the local and foreign militant groups said they wanted to ‘strive for the enforcement of shari’a Islamic not only in Pakistan and Afghanistan, but throughout the world’.
