According to a senior government official who requested not to be named, the assessment was shared with US National Security Adviser Susan Rice during her recent visit to Pakistan and subsequently with Afghan leadership during the Friday visit of Prime Minister's Advisor on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz to Kabul. The official said that the US will soon launch a "global coalition against ISIL from Sahel to South Asia" in New York, as the global terror network is becoming a real threat to the peace of the world.
He said the coalition will be from West [Morocco] to East [South Asia], adding Pakistan has not yet decided to join the coalition and any decision in this regard will be taken after due consultation. He said that US has urged Pakistan to join the coalition. Daesh, which has control over a large number of territories in Iraq and Syria, reportedly showed its presence in Afghanistan as confirmed by Afghan officials in January 2015, that the terrorist group had a military presence in the country and it is recruiting Afghan militants.
"We have shared our assessments with them [US, Afghanistan] that splintering in the Taliban will ultimately strengthen the footprints of Daesh in Afghanistan and it will be a serious threat to peace not only in Afghanistan but also to the whole region," the official said, adding if the splintered groups join Daesh it will also be very difficult for not only the Afghan government but also for the US to deal with the situation.
He pointed out that the burgeoning threat of Daesh in the region should be taken seriously because various elements inside Afghanistan have already pledged their allegiance to its self-proclaimed Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
"Our conviction about the peace process in Afghanistan through intra-Afghan dialogue is not based on assumptions but on certain ground realities...we have shared with them that if Daesh is strengthening in Afghanistan, it would also be difficult for the US [to deal with the situation] which is leaving Afghanistan with a hope that peace in the country would be restored," the official further elaborated.
He argued that it is for this reason that Pakistan has conveyed to the Afghan leadership that lasting peace in Afghanistan is only possible through an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process to which Pakistan is committed to extending all possible support. On September 10, 2014, President Obama announced the formation of a broad international coalition to defeat ISIL by appointing General John R. Allen, a distinguished retired US Marine Corps officer, as the Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL on September 13, 2014. The alliance was joined by 60 countries and Pakistan was also requested to join it.
In October last year, a group of militant commanders associated with the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) announced support for ISIL and accepted its leader Baghdadi as 'Caliph'. The militant commanders who pledged their allegiance to the ISIL belong to five districts of tribal areas along the Pak-Afghan border included Orakzai, Kurram, Khyber and Peshawar, including the TTP former spokesman Shahidullah Shahid.