It had been a month and a half since the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan. Unlike the ’90s, there has been hardly any political opposition. The takeover was smooth and swift. In Kabul, city life bounced back with the mouthwatering aroma of Kunduz Kebab and sights of Kandhari naan everywhere. The capital was peaceful and the last arrest in Kabul’s 13th district police station was an alcoholic taxi driver carrying beer cans. Street crime decreased and the chief concern of the people is the national economy.

But then the Islamic State of Khorasan Province struck – during a memorial service for the mother of the Afghan Taliban spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid.

The suicide bomber blew himself up near the main entrance to Eidgah Mosque in Kabul. Five people were killed and six were injured. The bomb blast was followed by what appeared to be panic firing by Taliban fighters. The expectation of a ‘foolproof security’ under the newly formed government was thus dented.

“I was only yards away when the bomber blew himself up. I fell and lost my senses but stood up again to help shift the injured to hospital”, recalled a Taliban fighter in his 30s outside an Italian-funded emergency centre in Kabul. “It would have been my honour had I been martyred. But wait... you tell me, who is Daesh? We know who they are. We know the conspiracy that is being hatched against our government,” he said. He showed me images and video clips of the crime scene. He shifted his AK-47 rifle from one shoulder to the other.

“Despite the worst economic conditions - banks are not functioning - we hoped that at least our lives were protected. That hope was also shattered that day. We thought that if there was peace, economic prosperity would follow. Now, that day seems far away. We were counting on them for our security. The country has been plunged into a financial crisis,” said Wafi Gran, formerly a worker at the Ministry of Mines.

To the north of Kabul that night there was gunfire and several explosions. “It began suddenly and kept gaining momentum,” said Amir Bostan, a resident of the Khair Khana district of Kabul. “The Taliban fighters were looking for Daesh members. Intense fighting continued till dawn. A house was completely destroyed,” Amir informed The News on Sunday (TNS). A special unit of the Taliban carried out an operation against IS-K base in Kabul and destroyed it. All the Daesh members were killed in the operation, reads a tweet by Zabihullah Mujahid following the raid.

Upon reaching the 17th district of the Afghan capital, our team found Taliban guarding the scene. A house had been reduced to mere debris. Journalists were not allowed to approach the rubble. Movement in the area was restricted.

“Why are you here? We have neutralised the threat. You are welcome to eat with us but you cannot set foot inside the premises without the permission of my emir,” a Taliban fighter told us. He also told us that he had taken part in the attack. “One of them in the house blew himself up,” he said, biting into an apple supplied by a Taliban food supply vehicle.

According to well-placed sources in Kabul, AfghanTaliban have entered negotiations with militant organisations like the TTP, Al Qaeda and the East Turkmenistan Movement and Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. These groups are being told they cannot use the Afghan soil to launch attacks on any other country. However, no such contact has been made with the ISKP.

According to well-placed sources in Kabul, AfghanTaliban have entered negotiations with militant organisations like the TTP, Al Qaeda and the East Turkmenistan Movement and Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. These groups are being told they cannot use the Afghan soil to launch attacks on any other country. However, no such contact has been made with the ISKP.

In the weeks following the attack, IS-K remained a step ahead of the Taliban. They hit two Shiite mosques in Kunduz and Kandahar, on consecutive Fridays. The death toll from these bombings was close to 80. There were numerous incidents of firing in Jalalabad and other districts of Nangarhar. Days before the Taliban takeover of Kabul, an attack at the airport had killed 73 people including 13 US servicemen. The attack was later claimed by the ISKP. After the Taliban reached an agreement with the United States, IS-K declared a war on them. The number of its foot soldiers was expected to rise following the prison breaks at Nangarhar, Bagram and Pul-i-Charkhi.

The Taliban had already begun unannounced low-intensity warfare against the IS-K. The two groups were at war with each other even before the takeover. The only difference is that now the Taliban are responsible for the security of the Afghan citizens. Although most Taliban leaders don’t speak on record about it, most of them would admit on the condition of anonymity that sleeper cells of the IS-K are a headache for them. “We are able to tackle Daesh independently,” Sohail Shaheen, the Taliban political spokesman, told AP when asked if the Taliban would work with the US to contain the Islamic State affiliate.

Islamic state of Khorasan Province came into existence in 2015. Khorasan is the historical term used to encapsulate current-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and adjacent territories. The group is known as ISIS-K, IS-K or ISKP. It was founded by militants who left the Afghan Taliban, the Pakistani Taliban and Al Qaeda. A branch of the salafi militant organisation, the Islami State (IS) – the main goal of IS-K is to establish and maintain Khorasan as a wilayat (province) of the IS caliphate, according to the Centre for International Security and Cooperation of Stanford University. The organisation has carried out public executions and closed schools.

Hafiz Saeed Khan surfaced in a video in 2015 and pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the then Islamic State leader. Both are said to have been killed in US drone strikes in 2016 and 2019, respectively. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the ISKP has been responsible for nearly 100 attacks against civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as nearly 250 clashes with the US, Afghan and Pakistani security forces since January 2017. Nangarhar and Kunar were considered ISKP strongholds until they were overcome by Afghan and Taliban forces.

Our team travelled to Nangarhar and stopped by a graveyard in Mamand Dara district where white flags were erected over each grave. “There was no graveyard here. A single ISKP attack was enough to create one and fill it. The locals buried in this graveyard were protesting against the government in 2018 when a suicide bomber entered their protest and detonated his jacket. It killed 65 people in our village, however the real cost can be seen inside these mud houses in the form of widows and the disabled,” Syed Nazeem, a local taxi driver told us.

By the time we were leaving Afghanistan, snap checking on the roads of Jalalabad had been doubled. Taliban fighters would argue long about our “Press” bullet-proof jackets and helmets despite permission letters signed by Zabihullah Mujahid. According to well-placed sources in Kabul, Afghan Taliban have entered negotiations with militant organisations like the TTP, Al Qaeda, the East Turkmenistan Movement and Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. The groups have been told they cannot use the Afghan soil to launch attacks against any other country.

No such contact has been made with the ISKP.

The writer is a Geo News broadcast journalist.