Trying to lure him into the Dae’sh group, the would-be recruiter told Pakistani journalist Hasan Abdullah, “Brother, you could be such an asset to the Ummah”- the Islamic community. Abdullah replied that he was enjoying life and had no plans to join the jihadis.
“The enjoyment of this life is short-lived. You should work for the Akhira” - the Afterlife, the recruiter pressed.
Dae’sh had its eye on Abdullah not because he adheres to any extremist ideology but because, as a journalist, the group believed he could be a boon to its propaganda machine, Abdullah in an interview with Associated Pres, recounting his meeting with the recruiter.
His encounter was a sign of how Dae’sh group is looking for sophisticated skills as it builds its foothold in new territory: Pakistan. It is courting university students, doctors, lawyers, journalists and businessmen, and using women’s groups for fund-raising. It is also wading into fierce competition with the country’s numerous other militant groups, particularly the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, the new branch created by the veteran terror network.
Dae’sh loyalists have set up their strongest foothold in Karachi, carrying out multiple attacks in the past year and setting up networks.
The port city of some 20m people on the Arabian Sea has always been a favourite for militants to operate. Wealthy districts running on the city’s profitable commerce hold potential for fund-raising, while the crowded, cramped poorer districts that have spread around the city provide recruits and places to hide. It also gives recruiters links to other parts of the country, since its population is full of people who have migrated from tribal regions or Afghanistan, looking for work.
The Karachi police’s top counter-terrorism official, Raja Umer Khitab, warns that Dae’sh has great potential to grow in Pakistan, not only because of its large reservoir of Sunni extremists but also because of the virulent anti-Shia sentiment among their ranks. Hatred of Shias and attacks against them are a keystone of Dae’sh group’s ideology and one source of its appeal among some hard-line Sunnis as it set up its self-declared “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria.
Dae’sh first announced its presence in Pakistan with a bloody attack in May in Karachi in which gunmen boarded a bus carrying Shias, ordered them to bow their heads, then opened fire, killing 45. The gunmen left behind a tattered piece of paper proclaiming, “Beware ... We have entered the battlefield for retribution and the implementation of Shariah.”
Since then, it has killed more than 35 policemen in targeted attacks, attacked two schools and killed rights activist Sabeen Mehmud, who was gunned down in her car with her mother at her side.
Dae’sh was able to expand into two tribal regions near the border with Afghanistan - Bajour and Orakzai - when Taliban leaders there switched allegiance to the Iraq-Syria-based group. The Dae’sh branch in neighbouring Afghanistan is also aggressively trying to expand its presence, putting it in direct competition with the Taliban.
The number of Dae’sh loyalists in Pakistan is not known. Government officials only recently admitted that they have a presence and insist loyalists here have no known operational links to the Dae’sh leadership in Iraq and Syria. Still, in one of the first warnings by an official about Dae’sh, intelligence chief Aftab Sultan told a Senate committee earlier this month that hundreds of Pakistanis have gone to fight in Syria, and some are now coming home to Pakistan to recruit.
Dae’sh recruiters have been stalking university campuses. For example, the suspected mastermind in the bus attack, Saad Aziz, was a graduate of the US-funded Institute of Business Administration in Karachi.
An intelligence official said security officials have interrogated several university professors suspected of supporting Dae’sh and trying to recruit students.
Professionals can hold leadership posts or be involved in the group’s prolific and powerful propaganda machine, which includes sophisticated videos produced with the latest technology and vigorous use of social media.
The past stereotype of a militant as a tribesman from the mountains in traditional garb with bandoliers of ammo slung over his shoulder has been replaced. But the new generation comes from well-educated, cosmopolitan, university educated Pakistanis from middle-class backgrounds who can navigate our globalised space whether virtually or physically with facility and confidence.