AT-KABUL: Following conflicting reports on presence of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) fighters in Afghanistan, spokesman to the ex-President Hamid Karzai said that the terrorist group operating under the label of the ISIS or Daish is the creation of Islamabad aimed to gain access to the energy-rich Central Asia, China and Russia.

Aimal Faizi in an article published recently by the BBC, said that some of local media outlets without differentiating news from propaganda are promoting the terrorist group.

Some officials including General Murad Ali Murad and General Mahmoud Khan confirmed the emergence of Daish without following the standard procedure outlined by the Ministry of Defense regarding media briefing, he said.

He added that domestic media quoted local people and official sources saying that they have seen masked men carrying black flags and speaking a language that they could not understand. “If, we go few years back, when one could not even imagine about ISIS in Afghanistan, Panjabi Taliban and other militant groups wearing masks were operating in Nuristan, Kunar, Logar, Badakhshan and other provinces,” Faizi argued.

Faizi further added that foreign hands were involved in creating ISIS-like terrorist groups to spread militancy to Central Asia, Russia and China through Afghanistan. “Islamabad had several times asked ex-President Hamid Karzai to give the country access to Tajikistan through Afghanistan,” he said, adding that Hamid Karzai rejected the demand as he believed it would bring insecurity to the region.

He stressed that Pakistan was using terrorist groups as a tool of foreign policy. “Pakistani military would never give up its policy of using terrorist groups as tool of foreign policy. It has strategic alliance with some particular terrorist groups and it supports them to wage war in Afghanistan,” the article added.

Fiazi in the article urged President Ashraf Ghani to exercise more caution in his foreign policy with regard to Pakistan.