The war between the state of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and the militants is growing as it continues and becoming quite complex with the passage of each day. Not only the conflicts between state and militants is being observed in Afghanistan but the intra militancy war itself is being observed to escalate lately. As of on 4^th October General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) has arrested the head of foreign communication & finance of ISKP, Abdul Malik aka "Maliki" from Kunar province. He used to receive financial aid for ISKP from their related elements in countries like Ukraine, Greece & Spain. He was also recruiting for ISKP. One day prior to this i.e 3^rd October, intense conflict was reported in Shakay district of Badakhshan province (adjacent to Tajikistan border) between IEA forces and militants of NRF (National Resistance Front). According to reports, NRF militants ambushed the governor of the district Molvi Akram along with 10 other Afghan Soldiers on the highway towards Shakay. NRF also released the video of the captured persons. Earlier of the week, Afghan Taliban had appointed Tajik ethnic Maulvi Qudratullah Amini from Panjshir province as the new Governor of the strategic Logar province adjacent to the capital Kabul. Amini previously served as a governor in his native Panjshir province. Moreover On 4th October’s early morning, a blast was reported in Kabul. Sources told that  an explosion took place near the office of Jamiat-e Islami, in Karte Parwan. The IEA’s police spokesman in Kabul, Khalid Zadran, confirmed that a blast took place in Bagh e Bala, Kabul. He added nobody injured or died in this explosion. He said the explosive planted on the roadside exploded. On the same day reports came in regarding a senior Pakistani Taliban (TTP) commander, Mufti Noor Syed Mehsud as he  ordered his fighters for a war against the Afghan Taliban when the latter surrounded the house of a TTP commander in Kunar, Afghanistan. However, this issue did not proceed to war and was resolved via negotiations. Mehsud told the TTP fighters that the Afghan Taliban's humiliations of the TTP people would no longer be tolerated. He said that "the TTP emir, Mufti Noor Wali, has instructed him for a full-fledged war against the Afghan Taliban if it does not refrain from its transgressions."

Similarly, last week, the Afghan Taliban expelled 25 TTP families from their homes in Nangarhar province to the deserts of southern Helmand province, where they are in a miserable situation. TTP is intense anger against the Afghan Taliban due to these incidents. In another incident on 5^th October 25 persons got killed, more than 40 got wounded in a suicide attack inside the mosque of Interior Ministry of IEA in Kabul. Local sources say several Haqqani network’s leaders including Anas Haqqani are among casualties. IEA however has not released any specific details regarding such and tries to sensor any information leading to security breach. On 7^th October militants  of the Afghan Frontier Force (AFF) at 7:47 PM carried a targeted attack against Afghan Taliban official Abdul Sataar, in Kabul shah area in Kandahar city. Abdul Sataar was allegedly responsible for the torture and killings of ANDSF members. AFF have threatened Afghan Taliban to stop killings and torturing of ANDSF otherwise they will  continue to attack them. On 8^th October an explosion in a vehicle of the Ministry of (Higher) Education in Kabul had resulted in casualties as  initial information suggested. Kabul police has arrested fee suspects and the interrogation is under process.  Kabul’s police chief has confirmed this. . In a statement he said that there were 3 injuries from what he described as an IED camouflaged in a flowerpot. The injured were all civilians, he said. Adding that the perpetrators of the attack will be brought to Justice. Also this week ISKP released a new 495-page book titled “Rules of Jihad”, ISKP has mentioned some INGO’s by name to be targeted in line with other sects. Book addresses several topics on the subject from the perspective of the jihadist group, including step by step acceleration of activities in the region. Plus on 9^th October Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) claimed that  the group detonated an IED on a vehicle of the Afghan Taliban in Watapur area, Kunar province, Afghanistan, last Wednesday, killing and wounding an unspecified number of people on board. Another news came in on the same day as top Biden administration officials met in-person with the Afghan Taliban on Saturday (8-10-2022) in Qatar for the first time since al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed

The presence of CIA Deputy Director David Cohen and the Taliban’s Wasiq at the meeting indicates an emphasis on counterterrorism. In another incident reported on 9^th of October, a senior Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan Commander, Abdullah Khaki alias Abdullah Bajauri , whose house was raided by the IEA soldiers in Kunar Province a few days ago has been critically injured injured in a mine explosion in Shultan District. A senior TTP member confirmed the attack. Maulana Abdullah Bajauri is a key commander, who had masterminded large scale attacks in Pakistan. He previously joined Jammat ul Ahrar later rejoined TTP. He is considered to be a close aide to Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud. Moreover on Sunday (9^th Oct.) morning, on the basis of a reconnaissance report, the IEA special forces conducted an operation on a hideout of ISKP in PD4 of Kabul. The center was destroyed, 5 ISKP members were killed & 4 others were reported to be captured alive. Another exclusive report received on 9^th October regarding the famous commander of Kandahar of former Afghan Army (Commander Abdul Samad) as he was killed by firing of unknown armed men in Shaal area of district Kandahar. He was anti Taliban and was also seen in a video he released some time ago against the Taliban government.  Moreover it is also being rumoured by the sources that, Afghan Taliban are providing ammunition support to the Baloch Fighters in Iran’s Balochistan province in the current scenario of armed conflicts between Iranian forces and local Irani Balochs. Reason being the ideological difference between Afghanistan’s Emir Hibatullah Akhundzada & Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khumeni

Also, Al Qaeda in the  Subcontinent (AQIS) in its main publication of Nawa-e-Ghazwa-e-Hind has announced complete support of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) praising its leadership of past and current as well maintaining the semi autonomous status of former FATA. The language of the publication is political and a scathing critique of the Deoband school of thought from its origin in the 1800’s and its division after partition - with a warning like plea to the Ulema of the School of thought to support the TTP and IEA. In its editorial, AQIS has mentioned the speech of Pakistani PM Shahbaz Sharif as well as Mulla Yaqoob’s press conference on the use of Drone Warfare in the region. However, there is no mention of Sairjauddin Haqqani. AQIS inference of the situation is a continuation of war. However; the group now terms the war as an economic manipulation of the region by the United States and has specified instructions for traders and merchants to contribute to stabilise local economies. Perhaps even more interesting is AQIS's mention of extra judicial measures adopted in Afghanistan and makes an appeal to readers that it should be pin pointed that any action that is taken against the due process of courts be brought to the limelight regardless of any bias.

Analysis

IEA needs to revive its better days relations with Pakistan in order to cooperate jointly against the militancy threat whose roots are inter related and whose beneficiaries (e.g America, India, Israel) are also the same. IEA should realise the fact that TTP has been one of the main reasons of the international community relating the word of “terrorism” with “Taliban”.  Afghan Taliban have different agendas and intentional interests which are more likely to align with Pakistan’s National interest while TTP is on a different foreign (backed) agenda. IEA/Afghan Taliban should also note and realise the fact that TTP and ISKP are on the same pattern of actions, motives and agendas. Recently both the groups have been observed collaborating and overlapping over the acts of militancy in Afghanistan and Pakistan both. Although both ISIS/ISKP and TTP are two different groups with different scope of ideals but it is clear that both are neither friends of Afghanistan nor Pakistan.