Rivalry Between the Taliban and ISKP: The Collision of Terror

Today, Afghanistan finds itself in the cross hairs of a security vacuum and a near-failed state, where the increasing radicalisation of its populace appears to be an inevitable reality. Despite the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001 by the allied forces, it was able to resurge as a powerful non-state actor from 2006 onwards, under the leadership of Mullah Omar. However, that failed to prevent the emergence of other terrorist groups, like the Islamic State—Khorasan Province (ISKP), whose formation in 2015 heralded the beginning of the ongoing rivalry between the two organisations. Even though tracing their origin to terrorist outfits such as the Afghan Taliban and Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), ISKP terrorists who formed the Khorasan branch of Islamic State (ISIS) consider the Hanafi-based organisations not ‘extremist enough’. Furthermore, the ISKP leaders denigrate the Taliban for their ethno-nationalist ambitions that fail to align with its pan-Islamic and extremist version of Salafist Islam. The ideological conflict, reinforced by resource-based competition and dynamics introduced by other jihadist groups such as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) and TTP, and the state actors like Pakistan, will continue to worsen the geostrategic and humanitarian crises unfolding in the country, with broad regional implications.