Reports that Pakistani forces have vacated certain areas in Khyber and Tirah to establish bases for ISIS have triggered alarm within Pakistan. In response, authorities have launched a crude and desperate propaganda campaign against Afghanistan. Those behind it appear so uninformed and incompetent that they are attempting, unsuccessfully, to divert global attention from ISIS facilitation inside Pakistan by falsely claiming the presence of ISIS members in Afghanistan who were killed years ago. The relationship between Pakistan’s intelligence agencies and ISIS has effectively become an open secret, with mounting evidence steadily exposing these covert ties.
In recent years, the dramatic events related to ISIS in Pakistan have further revealed the nature of these relationships. At times, senior ISIS commanders are arrested and handed over to major powers, while at other times, their spokespersons are covertly given shelters and then dramatically announced arrest to serve political needs.
All of this appears to be part of a staged performance, seemingly aimed at portraying contributions to counter terrorism, but in reality it reflects Pakistan’s deliberate nurturing of proxy networks and its calculated use of them for its own interests.
Attacks on ISIS camps in Balochistan, and ISIS’s open threats in response, further reinforce the fact that this group has become highly important to Pakistani agencies and is clearly operating under their patronage. The presence of ISIS in the regions of Khyber, Tirah, and Orakzai, along with unclaimed drone strikes and attacks by unidentified armed men, suggests that the group has been provided not only resources but also space to operate freely under protection.
According to recent reports, the Pakistani military has vacated some areas in Khyber and Tirah to establish new ISIS bases, which is considered the most dangerous aspect of the situation. Immediately after these reports surfaced, social media accounts linked to Pakistan security agencies launched a false and misleading propaganda campaign about ISIS in Afghanistan, indicating a coordinated attempt to conceal the truth.
Most strikingly, this propaganda campaign has used names and images of individuals who were killed years ago. For example, Sheikh Maqbool, who was killed in a drone strike in July 2015, has been falsely portrayed as alive and shown in Faryab, Afghanistan. This reflects blatant deception and lays bare the fundamentally dishonest and fragile nature of the entire narrative. (Stay tuned for Al-Mirsaad's investigative and research report on this matter.)
The reality is that Pakistani secret agencies are using ISIS as a proxy, a tool through which they pursue their strategic objectives in the region. However, this situation can no longer remain hidden. Changing circumstances and emerging evidence are steadily exposing this covert relationship.
It is time to move beyond empty diplomatic statements and pursue transparent, impartial investigations, as this is not confined to a single country but poses a serious threat to regional and global peace and stability.