New Post-ISIS Islamist Militant Group Reported Forming on Afghan-Central Asian Border

Paul Goble

            Staunton, October 19 – With the destruction of the territorial base of the Islamic State, many have wondered how its followers will metasticize into new terrorist groups. One such organization, reportedly including several thousand fighters, has now arisen in the border regions between Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, on the one hand, and Afghanistan, on the other.

            Moscow Mufti Albir Krganov, the head of the Muslim Spiritual Directorate (MSD) of Russia, told Sputnik Tajikistan, a Moscow-controlled outlet there, earlier this week that this group known as Khorasan may in fact be a successor to ISIS and may threaten not only Central Asia directly but Russia via migrants as well (regnum.ru/news/2335112.html).

                The Muslim leader said that he and Moscow were interested in doing everything they can to block the rise of this group before it can become fully formed and operational, but Krganov complained that Tajik Muslim leaders had so far shown little or no inclination to cooperate with their Russian co-religionists in such an effort. 

            Krganov’s statement about the new group cannot be independently confirmed, and in the murky world of such terrorist groups, Khorasan may simply represent the renaming of other pre-existing organizations. But the timing and venue of his announcement suggest that many in Moscow don’t think that is the case.

            Thus, yet another Islamist radical organization has likely emerged and bears close watching.