Hafiz Saeed Khan: Leading the Islamic State’s Violent Agenda in Afghanistan and Pakistan

Hafiz Saeed Khan: Leading the Islamic State’s Violent Agenda in Afghanistan and Pakistan

In January 2015, the Islamic State’s chief spokesperson, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, announced the establishment of Wilayat Khurasan, covering a geographical region that roughly includes Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of Central Asia and India. In an audio message titled “Die in Your Rage!,” al-Adnani stated that the new Islamic State province would be headed by former Pakistani Taliban commander Hafiz Saeed Khan, who, the message said, had recently fulfilled the necessary conditions to become the wali (governor) of the so-called Khurasan province: Saeed Khan had pledged his oath of allegiance to the Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (World Analysis.net, January 26). Initial information suggested that Afghanistan-based Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost, famous for his poetic prowess during his time in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, would head the Khurasan chapter (Dawn [Karachi], November 14, 2014). Following the formalization of the new chapter this January, all attention, for obvious reasons, has been centered on Hafiz Saeed Khan and how he would steer the Islamic State’s expansion and implement its violent agenda in the region. With this declaration, the Islamic State formalized its presence in South Asia, thereby furthering its geographical expansion.

On January 10, shortly before Adnani’s announcement, one of the Pakistan Taliban’s splinter groups released the oath-taking video message featuring Hafiz Saeed Khan along with other fellow jihadists. This pledge video also featured footage of the decapitation of a Pakistani soldier (Dawn [Karachi], January 12). However, this was not the first time Saeed Khan’s name popped up in a message concerning the Islamic State. In mid-October 2014, an audio message by the same faction had declared allegiance to the Islamic State and to al-Baghdadi. The person in the audio message identified himself as Shahidullah Shahid (a.k.a. Abu Omar Maqbool) and named five senior Taliban commanders, including Saeed Khan, as having joined him in the oath-taking ceremony (ARY News [Karachi] October 14, 2014).

Life With the Pakistani Taliban

Born and raised in the Mamozai locality of the Orakzai Agency, which is nestled in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Pakistan’s tribal hinterland, Saeed Khan led a humble student life, with educational stints under a local cleric in Mamozai and at Darul Islamia in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province (IBTimes, January 19). He worked under an influential Taliban commander and religious scholar Maulvi Muhammad Saeed of Orakzai, who supported Afghan Taliban movement since 1994. [1]

A cursory look at Khan’s life suggests that he is one of the influential Taliban leaders who initiated the Tehrik-e-Taliban movement in Pakistan (TTP) along with leaders like Baitullah Mahsud to bring numerous pro-Taliban groups, mostly operating in FATA and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, under one conglomerate. The idea of TTP was to coordinate and consolidate the nascent Taliban movement in the region. Ostensibly, Khan was placed in charge of Orakzai Agency until 2013, after which Saeed distanced himself from the present TTP structure due to the power struggle and ideological differences with Mullah Fazlullah, the current leader of the TTP.

According to available reports, Hafiz Saeed Khan fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan during the U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. During that period, he was closely associated with Baitullah Mahsud, who was then advising the Afghan Taliban on Shari’a matters. Khan’s disenchantment with the TTP grew immediately after the death of Baitullah, who served as the chief of the TTP until his death in August 2009. When TTP’s shura (central council) selected Hakimullah Mahsud, a senior commander of the Orakzai, Kurram and Khyber agencies, as Baitullah’s successor, Saeed Khan and his followers backed Wali-ur Rehman Mahsud as the TTP chief instead. Wali-ur Rehman eventually played second fiddle to Hakimullah as the deputy chief of TTP until his death in May 2013.

Saeed Khan’s notoriety and level of violence within his areas of influence could be assessed from the October 2013 suicide bombing attack on anti-Taliban militia leader Mullah Nabi Hanfi in Upper Orakzai Agency. Saeed Khan reportedly ordered at least four suicide bombers to target Nabi Hanfi, who was a former Taliban commander. Nearly 15 militia members were killed in that incident, while Nabi Hanfi survived the attack with severe injuries. More than 600 kilograms of explosives were used in that operation, which completely destroyed many nearby buildings, including a mosque (Express Tribune [Karachi], October 4, 2013).

The internecine schism for the control of TTP came out in the open once again following the death of Hakimullah Mahsud in early November 2013. Reports emerged at that time on Saeed Khan’s clout and caliber as an able commander and a respected cleric in the region. Reportedly, he led a Taliban offensive against the Pakistani Army in the Tirah Valley in northwest Pakistan that same year, which proved his expertise in militant campaign planning (Reuters, November 2, 2013). Even though Saeed Khan was a strong contender for the post, the shura opted for Maulana Fazlullah of Swat as the consensus candidate. Disgruntled, Saeed Khan remained only at the regional level and much lower in the Taliban hierarchy following this Taliban tug of war for leadership.

In January 2014, unconfirmed reports claimed that Hafiz Saeed Khan was killed during a Pakistani government-backed offensive in the Tora Waila area located in Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency. Khan’s death was subsequently refuted by the TTP spokesperson (Dawn [Karachi], January 14, 2014; The News International [Karachi], January 24, 2014). After splitting from the TTP, Hafiz Saeed Khan formed his own faction for a brief period, which was known as Orakzai Freedom Movement (or Tehrik-e-Taliban Islami) and got involved in moral policing activities in the Tirah Valley. Reports claimed that Tehrik-e-Taliban Islami under Saeed Khan abducted local Qambarkhel Afridi tribesmen for their involvement in illegal and un-Islamic activities in April 2014 (The News International [Karachi], April 15, 2014).

Enter the Islamic State

The emergence of the Islamic State caliphate and the possibility of a Khurasan chapter once again fanned Saeed Khan’s ambitions to become a high-level militant leader in the region. The much-expected shift of allegiance came last October, when Saeed Khan along with other TTP regional commanders such as Sheikh Umar Maqbool, Gul Zaman of Khyber Agency, Mufti Hassan of Peshawar, Hafiz Quran Daulat of Kurram, and Khalid Mansoor of Hangu pledged allegiance the Islamic State (Dawn [Karachi], October 14, 2014).

Meanwhile, Saeed Khan has shared with the Khurasan shura his intentions to consolidate his position and the Islamic State’s presence by mitigating the existing factionalism within the Taliban groups both in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In fact, the very configuration of the shura suggests a sincere attempt to integrate disgruntled and renegade Taliban commanders from both sides of the border. The shura membership structure also aims to achieve such integration. For example, Abdul Rauf Khadim, an Afghan Taliban commander and a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who was killed in a recent drone strike, was appointed as deputy chief of Khurasan (The News International [Karachi], February 10).

With Hafiz Saeed Khan at the helm, he may use his existing clout and influence over other like-minded regional militant formations such as TTP-Jamaat ul-Ahrar (TTP-JA), lesser-known organizations like the Tehrik-e-Khilafat Wa Jihad (Movement for the Caliphate and Jihad) and violent sectarian groups like Jundullah, which has already expressed support to the Islamic State and al-Baghdadi. The Khurasan chapter has already galvanized grassroots militant support, mostly from fringe and lesser known groups like the Sa’ad bin Abi Waqas Front (in Logar, Afghanistan), Tawad al Jihad (Peshawar) and Ansar al-Mujahideen (Waziristan). [2]

Conclusion

The beheading carried out by Saeed Khan and his team, perhaps the first anti-Pakistan operation by the Islamic State Khurasan chapter, marked the arrival in the region of the Islamic State’s brand of violent jihad. And more importantly, the beheading sent a message to the Pakistani government of more violence and Saeed Khan’s desperation to prove his extremist credentials to his Islamic State masters.

While the existing militant organizations in the region are either affiliated with or supportive of the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” led by Mullah Omar, the competing Islamic State’s presence would trigger further internecine conflict resulting in possible defections or shifts of allegiance. Most recently, for example, TTP’s Bajaur agency chief Maulana Abu Bakr defected and vowed support to the Islamic State and the so-called Khurasan province. [3] These instances certainly signal that the region is bracing for severe turf wars between the dominant al-Qaeda, the Taliban-linked groups and the newly-formed Islamic State Khurasan under Hafiz Saeed Khan.

Animesh Roul is the Executive Director of Research at the New Delhi-based Society for the Study of Peace and Conflict (SSPC).

Notes

1. Mansur Khan Mahsud, “Militancy in Orakzai Agency,” Fata Research Center, August 2012, https://frc.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Militancy-in-Orakzai-Agency.pdf.

2. For the Afghan connection, see Borhan Osman, “The Shadows of ‘Islamic State’ in Afghanistan: What threat does it hold?” Afghanistan Analyst Network, February 10, 2015, https://www.afghanistan-analysts.org/the-shadows-of-islamic-state-in-afghanistan-what-threat-does-it-hold/; For a list of mid-level Pakistani Taliban groups that supported Islamic State in Pakistan, see, “Pakistani Taliban splinter group again pledges allegiance to Islamic State,” Long War Journal, January 13, 2015, https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2015/01/video_pakistani_tali_2.php.

3. See “Wilayah Khurasan: Bayah of Mujahideen from Bajaur Agency to Dawla Islamiah,” https://justpaste.it/bajaurbait.