AOPNEWS | January 7, 2016
Earlier this week, the Taliban faction loyal to Mullah Mansur posted on its website that DAESH (aka ISIS) is a part of an anti-Islamic western conspiracy against them, and they vowed to purge them from eastern Nangarhar province, as they allegedly had done in other parts of the country. More clashes between the two militant groups have been reported recently. In fact, VOA News recently reported that two remote Nangarhar districts (Batikot and Chaparhar) were captured from DAESH by the Taliban. However, the Taliban failed to grab the DAESH strong hold of Nazyan, according to the VOA report.
Taliban militants also accuse the Afghan government of providing military support to DAESH fighters, despite numerous reports of government and DAESH clashes. Just yesterday, Afghanistan’s acting defense minister announced the formation of a special force which will focus against DAESH in eastern Afghanistan.
The Taliban militants may be partially right in referring to DAESH as part of a conspiracy against the group. Some Afghan political analysts argue that the Taliban are seriously worried about DAESH. There is a fear among the Taliban leadership that they will be replaced with DAESH. The analysts see Pakistan’s ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) behind both the Taliban and DAESH.
Back in the 1990s, Pakistan, frustrated with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s repeated failure in securing Afghanistan for Pakistan, decided to replace him with the newly created Taliban. The analysis is that the Taliban have only been successful in Pashtun dominated areas, since most of their fighters and leadership are Pashtun. DAESH is being planned as a multi-ethnic, anti-tribal group. This way, they can get Tajik, Uzbek, and other non-Pashtun extremists to join them. The overall plan is to capture and dominate both the Pashtun and non-Pashtun areas of Afghanistan under one anti-nationalist and anti-tribal organization, secretly being financed and controlled by Pakistan. The objective of Pakistan is to control Afghanistan and its resources, and use it against its rival India, according to the Afghan analysts.