No organised Islamic State presence in Pakistan: Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakaria

Islamabad: Despite intelligence warnings that the Islamic State (IS) is an emerging threat, the Pakistan foreign office insisted that the terror group has “no organised presence” in the country, the media reported on Friday.

“Let me reiterate that there is no organised presence of IS in Pakistan,” Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakaria said during a briefing on Thursday.

Zakaria was answering a question about the testimony by Aftab Sultan, the chief of the Intelligence Bureau, before a Senate committee on Wednesday that IS was an emerging threat, particularly because of the support of local terrorist and extremist organisations, including the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.

IS has been discussed as an emerging threat at different national forums in the past as well.

The foreign office has all along maintained that IS is not a major security threat for the country, but such assertions have failed to quash fears about the group, which has found a foothold in neighbouring Afghanistan and reports about its activities inside Pakistan keep coming.

Several sleeper cells and recruiting rings of IS are said to have been busted by security agencies.

IANS