The Pakistani Taliban has declared that the Islamic State’s (ISIS) proclamation of an Islamic caliphate is illegitimate, according to a statement relayed through its official media outlet.
Umar Media, the Pakistani Taliban’s official propaganda outfit, recently released a 60-page document laying out why the ISIS caliphate under “caliph” Abu Bakr al Baghdadi should not be accepted by the Muslim world, according to Thomas Joscelyn of the Long War Journal.
Pakistani Taliban jihadist Abu Usman Salarzai wrote the 60-page rebuttal, in which he pays his respects to Afghan Taliban warlord Mullah Omar and deceased Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, along with new Al Qaeda chief Ayman al Zawahiri.
Breitbart News has reported on the fierce tensions between the Taliban sects and ISIS, the latter of which continues to encroach upon the rival Sunni jihadist group’s territorial gains in southwest Asia.
ISIS has seen success in recruiting Taliban commanders into its ranks. In January and February, several Taliban commanders pledged allegiance to ISIS, after internal strife caused the Pakistani Taliban coalition to weaken significantly, the Long War Journal expert explains.
But Al Qaeda has attempted to help the Taliban restore its foothold in the region. Recent documents recovered in Osama Bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound have now made clear that Al Qaeda has long held an alliance with the Pakistani Taliban, Joscelyn explains.
The Pakistani Taliban has shown that its jihadists will carry out acts that are just as barbaric and inhumane as ISIS’s conquests. In December, its militants killed over 140 people in a mass slaughter at a Pakistani army school.
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