Islamic State of Khurasan Province (ISKP)

 In 2015, IS (Daesh) announced establishing of ISKP (Khorasan Province). Initially, it drew fights & commanders from Tehreekh e Taliban (TTP) splinters residing mostly in Afghanistan, including Hafiz Saeed Khan head of ISKP & Former TTP spokesperson Shahidullah Shahid.

Shahid Ullah The ideological and security dynamics of Afghanistan were different, despite a good start it soon started facing the heat. For the expansion of operations, ISKP needed support from outside the dominant circles, as the majority in AF-Pak were already working under the umbrella of IEA (Afghan Taliban) in Afghanistan and Tehreekh e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) respectively. ISKP managed to recruit some former Ex-Lashkar e Jhanqvi (LEJ) & Lashkar e Taiba (LET) from Pakistan but it shifted its focus towards India.

In two years by 2017 ISKP managed to recruit fighters from Kashmir & India. With the establishment of Ansarul Khilafah in Jammu and Kashmir later which rebranded in Kashmir Wilāyah Kashmir. In 2019 IS announced the establishment of Wilāyah Hind ISHP (hind Province) which included Kashmir, Bangladesh, Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Wilāyah Pakistan that was ISPP (Pakistan Province). So the South-Asian region had three branches ISKP (Khorasan Province), ISPP (Pakistan Province), and ISHP (Hind Province). The latter two carried out multiple attacks but most of the operations remained limited to Afghanistan.  

Afghan Taliban operations against ISKP, especially in Nangarhar & Kunar, forced them to rely on the other two branches, ISHP carried out a couple of low-intensity attacks in Kashmir but the majority of Indian nationals shifted to Afghanistan. This also indicated the fact that the command of all three branches lies with the ISKP, which offered little support to the two other branches. As per UN report, IS has a strong presence in India especially in Karela & Karnataka. It recruited around 180-200 fighters.

Even though these Indian national fighters were engaged in ISKP major operations in Afghanistan since 2017 I just want to give two latest examples for reference.  

• On March 25,2020 Abu Khalid al-Hindi (M.Sajid) From Kerala carried out a suicide attack on Sikh Gurdwara in Kabul.

• On 3 August 2020, an ISKP attack on central prison in Jalalabad. Out of total of 11 attackers, 3 were Indian nationals.