The suicide attack on February 28 at Darul Uloom Haqqania, the prominent Deobandi madrasa in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, has once again drawn attention to the shifting terror nexus in Afghanistan-Pak region and the role of Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) causing worry for Indian security agencies.
While no outfit has claimed the attack that killed Ulema-e-Islam- Sami (JUI-S) leader and madrasa Head Maulana Hamidul Haq, commentators in Pakistan suspect ISKP is behind the killing. However, Indian officials watching the developments closely are concerned about a spillover of the proxy wars of outfits operating in the Af-Pak region purportedly supported by Pakistan’s ISI.
A case in point is the conflicts between various TTP factions—once used by the Pakistan army—turning into a major challenge as disgruntled factions have launched major attacks and caused large casualties in recent months . Officials said the growing differences between the Pakistan army and Taliban regime and continuing efforts of ISKP to militarily challenge Taliban can open up a can of worms as terror groups—once nurtured as “long arm” of state support—may use the opportunity to augment their networks beyond Af-Pak region to target Indian and Western interests.
Thousands attended the funeral of Hamidul Haq, head of Jamia Haqqania & chief of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, who was martyred in a suicide attack at a mosque inside the seminary. Police say he was the target. He was the son of Maulana Samiul Haq, a key figure linked to the Afghan… https://t.co/fRowb1iCyl pic.twitter.com/dnMplzbURo
— Ghulam Abbas Shah (@ghulamabbasshah) March 1, 2025
According to security officials, Taliban after consolidating its control over Afghanistan, started pushing back the Pakistan army, which set off a series of disputes mostly involving the management of the movement of people and goods across the Durand line and activities of various terror groups.
“TTP factions found these emerging differences as an additional leverage in their dealings with ISI,” said an official.
At the same time, efforts by the Pakistan ISI to prop up ISKP as a check and leverage over the Taliban have muddied the waters more.
In another recent assassination, ISKP purportedly claimed the killing of prominent Taliban leader from the Haqqani Network Khalil Rahman Haqqani in December 2024 in Kabul. While the reasons are not clear, Indian security officials point out that it is implausible for ISKP to have this capability inside Kabul without outside support.
At the root of the ISKP’s emboldened moves, sources said, are inherent contradictions playing out between Pakistan’s ISI and various extremist groups operating in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Officials pointed out that ISI-linked actors like Aijaz Ahmad Ahangar alias Abu Usman al Kashmiri, his son-in-law Huzaifa Al Bakistani and Aslam Farooqi had become prominent in ISKP ranks. Significant number of ISKP foot soldiers came from TTP, Haqqani Network and LeT, sources said, which indicates a tacit role of ISI in making ISKP lethal enough to challenge Taliban. Indian officials also suspect that the ISKP has been receiving sufficient funding through timber and precious stone smuggling, a lucrative source of smuggling that was once a monopoly of the Haqqani Network.
In the factionalised milieu of Af-Pak region, the latest worry of Indian security agencies is the growth of extremist outfits and associated violence becoming a breeding ground for diverse terror groups outside the troubled region .
