KARACHI, Pakistan—Muslim-majority Pakistan has long been awash with terrorist organizations, including al Qaeda, which has been based in the country since 2001. Now, there are signs that some extremists are shifting allegiance to Islamic State.
In recent weeks, assailants lobbed grenades at the offices of three television news channels, claiming they were acting for Islamic State. A pamphlet at the scene of one blast warned media to “stop siding with the apostate army and government of Pakistan.”
In the eastern province of Punjab, police in December said they detained 30 people—many disaffected members of other militant groups—suspected of banding together and seeking to join Islamic State. A senior security official there said they wanted to “rebrand” themselves.
On Friday, three police officers on patrol were shot dead in the city of Faisalabad in Punjab. Again, pamphlets left at the scene claimed Islamic State was responsible. Local security officials said it was unclear if the gunmen were really connected to the terrorgroup.
Islamabad says there is no evidence Islamic State has an organized presence or is orchestrating and carrying out attacks in nuclear-armed Pakistan. But government officials warn that the jihadist group’s territorial conquests in the Middle East are a potential draw for new recruits when the army and police are struggling to suppress terror.
“The real threat to us is the ideological appeal, as well as the high profile the group has gained,” said the senior official in Punjab, who declined to be identified. “We’re trying to nip this in the bud, catch people before they are in a position to carry out any attacks.”
The head of Pakistan’s Intelligence Bureau, Aftab Sultan, told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing earlier this month that hundreds of Pakistanis had joined Islamic State fighters in Syria and Iraq, according to people who were present. That would be far fewer than are suspected to have gone from France.
One reason experts say more haven’t left to fight abroad is that Pakistan has such a large number of domestic jihadist groups to absorb those radicalized. Officials worry Pakistan’s long history of extremism could provide especially fertile ground for Islamic State. The country already has entrenched Sunni groups whose hatred of minority Shiite Muslims mirrors that of Islamic State.
“Young jihadists who think their groups don’t take enough action, and see Daesh punching at a global level, find it inspirational,” said Omar Hamid, a London-based security expert with consulting company IHS Inc. and former Karachi police counterterror officer, using an Arabic name for Islamic State.
And that, police in Karachi say, is translating into bloodshed. In May, gunmen in Karachi, Pakistan’s commercial capital, walked down the centeraisle of a bus carrying Shiites, methodically shooting its passengers and killing 43 people. The attackers left behind pamphlets lauding Islamic State.
Victims’ family members consoled one another after an attack on a bus in Karachi on May 13, 2015. Gunmen boarded the bus and opened fire on passengers, killing 43 people. ENLARGE
Victims’ family members consoled one another after an attack on a bus in Karachi on May 13, 2015. Gunmen boarded the bus and opened fire on passengers, killing 43 people. PHOTO: AKHTAR SOOMRO/REUTERS
Authorities say they believe the assault was a gruesome audition of sorts by a terror cell composed of educated and relatively affluent Pakistani extremists—one of whom was a former Unilever PLC manager—that hoped to win favor with the jihadist group.
The group, many of whom formerly belonged to al Qaeda, wanted “to show Daesh what they can do,” said Raja Umar Khattab, a senior Karachi counterterrorism police officer.
Police arrested eight suspected leading members of the cell, which they allege was also behind the assassination of a liberal activist and the shooting of an American health worker in Karachi. They were handed over to the military last month for trial in military courts controversially established last year to try terrorism cases.
The Karachi cell was receiving support, security officials said, from Brohi Baloch—the brother of Ramzi Yousef, convicted in the U.S. of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York. Cell members visited his hideout in the western province of Balochistan, officials said.
Officials say most drawn to Islamic State appear to be operating independently, like Tashfeen Malik, a Pakistani national, and her husband, an American of Pakistani heritage, who killed 14 people in a shooting spree in California in December and pledged loyalty to Islamic State.
Islamic State named a former Pakistani Taliban militant, Hafiz Saeed Orakzai, to head its operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but he is based in Afghanistan.
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Investigators probing the Karachi bus attack concluded in a report that the participants had been seeking to contact Islamic State, but said there was “no direct linkage/flow of instructions” between the two groups.
The Karachi cell had 20 to 25 alleged members. Among them, police said: Saad Aziz, a 27-year-old graduate of one of Pakistan’s two top business schools, Karachi’s Institute of Business Administration, who ran a family-owned Mexican-food and burger joint called Cactus. Muhammad Farooq, a lawyer for Mr. Aziz, said his client has denied all allegations against him. Mr. Aziz’s family says he was asleep at home on the morning of the bus attack, said Mr. Farooq.
In addition to the bus massacre, Mr. Aziz is accused of killing Sabeen Mahmud, a human-rights activist who ran a Karachi arts center and hosted political talks, for her liberal views and opposition to the Taliban.
Ms. Mahmud was shot just after she hosted a talk on human-rights abuses by Pakistani armed forces in Balochistan, leading many to accuse the military of being behind the killing. The military denied any involvement.
Police say Mr. Aziz was initially recruited to join al Qaeda by Ali Rehman, a Pakistani employee of Unilever, whom he met while doing an internship. Unilever declined to comment. Police allege Mr. Rehman, a graduate of Pakistan’s top engineering college, took part in both the killing of Ms. Mahmud and the bus attack. Police say he is at large.
One of the alleged financiers of the Karachi cell ran an accountancy-training college in the city, while the wives of several members were active in spreading its ideology and raising funds, police say. The alleged leader is thought by police to have fled to Afghanistan or Syria.
Several members of the cell in previous years had attended lectures of Tanzeem-e-Islami, a proselytizing group established in 1962 that calls for the establishment of a caliphate, a transnational Islamic government, police said.
Islamic State declared it had established a caliphate in 2014.
Syed Azher Riaz, a spokesman for Tanzeem-e-Islami, said the group is opposed to creating a caliphate through violent means. But, he said, “Democracy is not suitable for bringing an Islamic system.”
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