[4th SERIES] THE THREAT IN SOUTH ASIA

[ARTIKEL] ISLAMIC STATE’S GLOBAL EXPANSION: A RENEWED THREAT TO ASIA?

[4th  SERIES] THE THREAT IN SOUTH ASIA

BY: ROHAN GUNARATNA

Global Asia Vol. 14, No. 3, September 2019

IS declared a series of wilayats in South Asia, and as a result the threat has grown in Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India. The IS threat in the area will continue to grow. IS in Afghanistan is also attempting to infiltrate tribal Pakistan and then mainland Pakistan. Although Pakistani authorities are fighting back, IS now targets civilian and government officers in Pakistan. the threat will increase with the drawdown of foreign troops from Afghanistan. in 2018 and 2019, Afghanistan emerged as a venue for foreign fighters. With the difficulties of transit through Pakistan, foreign fighters are traveling through Iran to Afghanistan. With the challenge of traveling to iraq and Syria, foreign fighters are joining both IS and Afghan Taliban to fight the US, NAtO and Afghan forces.

The early fighters came from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Algeria, Indonesia, France, turkey and Kyrgyzstan. The many nationalities present demonstrates the future threat to Central Asia and beyond, including Southeast Asia. A key Indonesian IS leader, Chaniago Saifulllah, who was from West Sumatra, co-ordinated operations in Southeast Asia and was killed in Afghanistan by US forces in August 2019. Although Indonesia’s Special Forces unit, Densus 88, has said at least 11 Indonesian fighters and family members are in Afghanistan, the numbers are likely higher. the build-up was not only for training but to safely locate key leaders who direct operations.

The Southeast Asian threat landscape was largely shaped by the developments in Afghanistan and Pakistan in the 1990s and Iraq and Syria in the 2000s and 2010s. The leaders of dozens of threat groups from Southeast Asia were educated in the Middle east and North Africa and a thousand or so fighters trained in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Abdulrajak Janjalani, who founded the Philippines-based Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), the most notorious threat group in the region, studied in Saudi Arabia and libya.

A former member of the Moro National liberation Front, Janjalani received a scholarship to study at Umm ul Qura in Mecca where he studied Arabic in 1984-1986. After graduating, he received a scholarship from Dawah University in tripoli in 1988 to pursue a master’s degree. he did not travel to Pakistan or Afghanistan, as claimed, but maintained links with Osama bin laden. From Medina, Mohamad Jamal Khalifa (MJK), the brother-in-law of bin laden, travelled to Manila and built a bridge to al Qaeda. the Abu Sayyaf Group has morphed into iS. With support from groups in Malaysia and Indonesia, iS Philippines besieged Marawi City in 2017, the defining iS event in the region.