SHAFAQNA PAKISTAN (Shia News Agency)
IS has been rapidly becoming a threat to Pakistan. There are different schools of thought on the presence of ISIS in Pakistan. One school of thought holds the view that the discussion of IS’s growing influence in Pakistan has been overhyped by the media and certain vested interests. This school of thought believes gaining space in Pakistan will be difficult for the IS for six reasons. First, the IS is an outsider to the region: the impermissible barriers of language, culture and geography will make it difficult for the group to sow its influence here. Second, the IS sprung up in Iraq and Syria, which were collapsing societies marred by civil wars. Unlike them, Pakistan is a functioning state, run by a democratically-elected government and guarded by an elaborate and robust security apparatus. Third, the well-entrenched presence of veteran militant groups of the Afghan Taliban, al Qaeda and the Kashmiri militant groups leave very little space for the IS to gain a foothold here. Fourth, the IS’s message of the so-called caliphate is oversimplified and out of sync with complicated and isolated pockets of conflict in the region. Fifth, Pakistan is not part of the US-led anti-IS coalition, so the terror group will not pick a bone with the latter. Lastly, the IS follows a different stream of extremist ideology from the one followed by Pakistani terrorist groups. The limited appeal of the ideology followed by the IS in Pakistan will also constrain the group’s influence.
The other school of thought argues that denial about the IS presence in Pakistan is fraught with dangers. This school of thought is of the view that the IS’s stunning military victories, slick social media propaganda campaign, control over vast swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria and monopoly over the modern terrorist iconography have captured the imagination of extremist groups in Pakistan. This school of thought further argues that the IS has the cash, charisma and a successful model to inspire militants in Pakistan. For the cash-strapped al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban, it will not be easy to retain the support of overambitious new generations of militants in the region. Thus they are just verbally welcoming or swearing allegiance to IS, which means that they are not in position to support IS but wish to do it. If Pakistan military breaks the back bone of TTP, definitely IS threat would reduce to lesser extent.
pakistan.shafaqna.com
