PESHAWAR: Fresh graffiti in support of Islamic State (IS) militants in Pakistan has worried people, though the government had played down reports about the existence of the jihadis in the country.
Graffiti has appeared in all four provinces of the country. Recently, writing in favour of the IS scrawled on walls was seen in Hashtnagri locality in Peshawar, but
it was immediately erased by the police.
However, it was seen on the wall of a local public sector school the next day. Capital City Police Officer Ijaz Ahmad said that the IS was a real threat, but this was mere ‘wall-chalking.’
“So far, we have no information about the existence of the IS in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” said the chief of the police force of the city that suffered the most due to militancy in the last decade.
Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and military authorities have already denied the existence of IS in the country.
Army chief General Raheel Sharif during his visit to the US assured the world that no alliance of any local group from Pakistan with the IS would be tolerated. But the graffiti in support of the IS has already caused concern in the public.
The announcement by Shahidullah Shahid, the former spokesman of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to join the IS along with five other commanders has shown that the group might get support from local militants. Police in Lahore had filed a case against people who wrote graffiti supporting IS. In Karachi, wall writing in favour of the IS was seen withing the jurisdiction of two police stations.
In KP, the graffiti was witnessed first in Bannu and then in Peshawar. The police immediately erased it in Sikandarpura locality. It had read, “We are all ISIS”.
“However, another slogan appeared a couple of days later in the same locality,” said an official. Unlike Lahore, no action has been taken against culprits here.
A source said that the Special Branch Police and other agencies have been directed to submit a detailed report about the graffiti and any existence of the group in the province.
Inspector General of Police Nasir Khan Durrani recently said the same militants in different areas of the country changed names with time to hog the limelight.
Apart from the ongoing military operations, Zarb-e-Azb and Khyber-1 in the tribal areas, action has been taken against militants in some areas of KP.
However, there are still groups that are either operating from tribal areas or across the border in Afghanistan to pose a threat to law and order in Pakistan in general and Peshawar in particular, say experts.
Internews
