Citing governor of Sar-e Pul province, Afghan Tolo News agency reports that son of Tajik Yoldash, head of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) is recruiting Afghan youth into the ranks of Daesh (an Arabic acronym derived from the phrase “al Dawlah al-Islameyah fi Iraq wal-Sham" or literally, “Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham” (ISIS or ISIL).
Tolo News reported on February 3 that Sar-e Pul governor Mohammad Zahir Wahdat said that son of Tahir Yoldash has come to Sayad district in Sar-e Pul where he is recruiting for Daesh
Mohammad Zahir Wahdat in an interview with Tolo News said he is seriously concerned over security situation in the province as terrorists have recently infiltrated the Kohistanat district.
He reportedly urged security agencies to launch a large-scale military operation in Kohistanat in order to prevent the district from becoming a safe haven for terrorists.
“We will become more vulnerable in the future if the central government and our allies from the international community do not pay attention to this matter,” he was cited as saying by Tolo News.
Meanwhile, a number of Kabul provincial council members reportedly blamed security agencies for a delay in launching winter military operations against insurgents across the country.
“Security forces and our president who says he is the Commander in Chief of the army should pay attention to the province and launch military operations [against insurgents],” said Abdul Khaliq Zazai, a member of the council, according to Tolo News.
Commenting on the issue, the Defense Ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri reportedly said: “We have enhanced our operations and activities in vulnerable regions during the winter. We hope that we will not have war in the [coming] spring, but if the war continues, we will defeat the enemy by using better equipment.”
The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) is a militant Islamist group formed in 1998[ by the Islamic ideologue Tahir Yuldashev, and former Soviet paratrooper Juma Namangani—both ethnic Uzbeks from the Fergana Valley. Its original objective was to overthrow President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan, and to create an Islamic state under Sharia; however, in subsequent years, it reinvented itself as an ally of al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
The IMU suffered heavy casualties in 2001–2002 during the American-led invasion of Afghanistan. Namangani was killed, while Yuldeshev and many of the IMU's remaining fighters escaped with remnants of the Taliban to Waziristan, in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Since then, the IMU has focused on fighting Pakistani forces in the Tribal Areas, and NATO and Afghan forces in northern Afghanistan. On September 30, 2009, a man claiming to be a bodyguard of Tahir Yuldashev reported that Yuldashev had been killed in a US missile airstrike that occurred shortly after the death of Pakistan Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud. The next day, Pakistan and US officials confirmed this report. On August 17, 2010, the IMU announced that Yuldashev's long-serving deputy, Abu Usman Adil, had been appointed the group's new leader.
In mid-2015 its leadership publicly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and announced that the IMU was part of the group's regional branch. The United Nations considers the IMU an Islamic terrorist organization.
