Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) police chief Moazzam Jah Ansari has said that the Islamic State group’s Khorasan chapter (IS-K) poses a greater threat to ‘peace and security’ in KP than does Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which claimed responsibility for the attack on policemen in Islamabad Monday night.
The police chief confirmed that both militant groups had been responsible for the spate of recent terror attacks in Peshawar, however he said IS-K had been specifically targeting policemen.
“I see IS-K as a bigger threat to peace and security in the province compared to the TTP in [the] near future,” Ansari indicated in an interview with Dawn.
Three policemen were killed in the provincial capital in October and November of last year.
The following month, police successfully found and eliminated an IS-K terror cell they had suspected in the involvement of at least two targeted killing of policemen, as well as the murder Sikh hakim community member Satnam Singh near Charsadda Adda, Peshawar.
“These [militant] outfits are operating in small groups and the neutralisation of one cell does not end the possibility of another cell resorting to similar acts,” the police chief cautioned, adding that the groups were often disorganised and operated in individual small cells.
Ansari further explained that counter-terrorism operations in the former tribal areas were being conducted alongside development efforts to create more employment opportunities for youth in the area.
“These efforts will motivate the people to support government efforts for peace,” he said.
