Daily Times

Al Qaeda, which has been out of the news since the capture and killing of its chief, Osama bin Laden in 2011, hit the headlines again lately because its South Asian head Asim Umar was killed in a joint raid by US and Afghan forces. The Afghan Taliban, who have been in talks with the US to strike a peace deal, have denied the news, dubbing it propaganda by “officials of the stooge Kabul administration,” but agencies of Kabul and Washington took weeks to confirm the news, saying that the Al Qaeda chief of the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) was killed on September 23 in a raid on Taliban compound in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province. The middle aged militant leader, picked by Ayman al-Zawahiri, had been leading the outfit since 2014. His head was claimed at the cost of heavy collateral damage. The intense operation, which had US aerial cover, also killed 40 civilians. Besides Asim Umer, five other AQIS members were also killed, including Raihan, the reported courier for Ayaman al-Zawahiri, said Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security. There has been no word from Al Qaeda regarding the news.

Asim Umer’s killing has a greater relevance in Pakistan. He is reported to have masterminded the attack on a navy installation in Karachi in 2014. Moreover, he was trying to recruit militants from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Myanmar for coordinated attacks in the subcontinent.

The decline of Al Qaeda is a good sign. The rise of the outfit radicalised the Muslim world, and its influence in Afghanistan in the 90s also fanned the waves of militancy and sectarianism in Pakistan for decades. In a way, Pakistan has been the most impacted country because of the presence of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan drew inspiration and initial funding from Al Qaeda. The war on terror, which was the byproduct of Al Qaeda-led 9/11 attack, brought many of its leaders to Pakistan from Afghanistan. Almost two decades on, the country has been struggling to fight the remnants of Al Qaeda.

The development sheds light on the continued ties of Al Qaeda and Taliban in Afghanistan, despite the fact that the latter had agreed to cut ties with the militant outfit in return for withdrawal of US troops. One may require a high degree of optimism to believe a Taliban-Al Qaeda divorce in the wake of a US-Taliban deal. Similarly, the world needs to pay attention to the phenomenal rise of militant groups like Al Qaeda, Taliban, and now Daesh. *