‘First target is Pakistan’: ISIS-K aims to go global, impose Sharia law, says report

Afghanistan's ISIS Khorasan (ISIS-K) also known as Daesh, has said that its hardline goal remains the implementation of Sharia law and warned that whoever in the world went against Islam and the Quran will have to face the terror group's wrath.

"Our first target is to destroy Pakistan because the main reason for everything in Afghanistan is Pakistan. When the Taliban were here (even as the previous government still reigned), they were saying that we control 80 per cent of the country, but they were not implementing Islamic rulings. That's why we stood up in we started (ISIS-K) over here in this area," knewz quoted Nazifullah, a member of ISIS-K as saying.

According to him, Afghanistan has gone from bad to worse since the Taliban - who he accuses of "destroying the country" took the helm some two-and-a-half months ago.

"We want to implement Shariah Law. We want to implement the way our Prophet was living, the way he was clothed, the dressing hijab was there. Currently, we don't have much to fight. But if you give me anything, I am going to fight Pakistan now," knewz quoted Nazifullah as saying.

Knewz notes that Nazifullah is wanted by everyone from US troops and the now-defunct Afghan Security Forces and the Taliban.

Since August 15, ISIS-K has waged a deadly spate of suicide attacks and targeted bombings across multiple provinces and claimed dozens of lives. While some assaults have targeted the Taliban, the vast majority have been inflicted upon innocent civilians, particularly the minority Shia population.

Most of the recruits of the ISIS-K "are believed to have defected from the Taliban branches in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan, seeking an even more extreme interpretation of Islam with more international rather than domestic-centered goals of 'caliphate' control."

Like others who have joined ISIS-K, Nazifullah said he too joined as he was tired of the lack of truthfulness of the Taliban.

"We kept asking the Taliban to show us a video of Mullah Omar, but we couldn't get any. That is why Daesh here was created. They seemed truthful and said they were going to implement Shariah Law, so that is why I joined them," knewz quoted Nazifullah as saying.

Notably, the founder of the Taliban had died in 2013 which was kept a secret for nearly two years. The supreme leader of the Taliban, Haibatullah Akhundzada is being kept under the veil as well.

Nazifullah, 24, further said that ISIS-K has the ability to wreak havoc on the state of Afghanistan despite being outnumbered by the Taliban, according to knewz. The number of Taliban operatives on Afghan soil is estimated to be nearly around seventy thousand whereas the ISIS terrorists are believed by the US intelligence to be around two thousand mark.

To establish this point, ISIS has started the targeted attacks not only on the Taliban but also on the civilians after the Taliban takeover on August 15. The biggest such instance was the suicide attack on the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.

However, the ISIS member said that he was unclear about the number of ISIS terrorists in Afghanistan as he was locked in the Bagram prison, arrested by the Afghan government until he was freed by the Taliban after sweeping into power.

The terrorist further revealed that he had pledged his allegiance to Abu Bakr Baghdadi who is now reportedly dead.

Upon becoming a Daesh, members are sent for training to eastern Nangahar province and Nazifullah revealed that the group has been joined by an international cadre of jihadists coming from China, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Iran, and Russia.

The Taliban, however, has been denying the presence of ISIS on Afghan soil and claims that they have been defeated.