A resurgence and regrouping of Islamic State (IS) fighters is reported from the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region.
Many of these IS militants belong to the Orakzai tribe in Pakistan, and they maintain a presence on both sides of the Durand Line.
Afghan and U.S. coalition forces have recently cleared many areas of IS militants in a number of districts in eastern Nangarhar Province. But IS has recaptured several remote villages in Achin and Kot, which border Pakistan, VOA says quoting local tribal leaders.
“The government has not built any check posts in remote areas that lie far from the district center, and people in those areas live under IS control,” said Malek Kamin, a tribal elder in Achin.
Malek Kateb, a Kot district tribal elder, that around 250 IS fighters are present in the area.
According to tribal elders, IS militants are oppressing local residents and limiting their movement.
Provincial officials have said they are bulking up local police forces to work under the Interior Ministry to provide more enforcement and protect remote areas where IS is regrouping.
This regrouping of IS in the border region is accompanied by a threatening IS presence in neighbouring Pakistan, where despite the government’s previous denials military officials say IS is attempting to establish a foothold, a VOA dispatch said.
IS claimed responsibility over the weekend for the assassination of three Pakistani military personnel in the north-western city of Peshawar. The attack occurred days after the Pakistani military announced it had “forestalled” IS’s attempts to infiltrate Pakistan.
IS “tried to make an ingress and they failed, and they have been apprehended so far,” Lieutenant General Asim Bajwa, a spokesman for the Pakistani Army, told reporters earlier this month.
He added that security forces have arrested more than 300 IS-linked militants, including Syrians, in recent weeks. According to him, IS was plotting attacks on government, diplomatic, and other civilian facilities, including media offices.
The threat of IS in Pakistan follows reports and remarks by officials that the group had been attempting to expand in the country.
The director general of Pakistan’s Intelligence bureau, Aftab Sultan, earlier this year warned lawmakers that IS was an emerging problem in the country and that hundreds of fighters linked to local banned religious groups had left for Syria to join IS ranks there.
Near the Pakistan border in Afghanistan, IS militants have been active in parts of Nangarhar Province since last year and have launched multiple attacks against government forces and local villages.