Officials from India and Pakistan have told Newsweek that they are preparing for an uptick in threats posed by one of the most dangerous arms of the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) whose resurgent campaign has already brought heightened bloodshed to South Asia and beyond.
But as ISIS’ self-styled Khorasan province, often referred to as ISIS-K or ISIL-K, looks to entrench and expand by exploiting local grievances and mistrust among governments, officials from the two nuclear-armed rival nations also cast blame on one other’s country for allegedly having a hand in fostering the conditions that have allowed the militants to take hold in their shared region.
Evidence of ISIS-K’s attempts to target South Asia could be seen in recent publications. The June issue of the ISIS-K-linked Al-Azaim Foundation’s Voice of Khurasan magazine carried a cover story accusing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of being “hostile to Islam,” calling on Muslims to “revolt against them.”
Read the rest of the story at Newsweek.