ISLAMABAD // The recently formed South Asian chapter of ISIL has made a military alliance with the Pakistani Taliban and other militants to resist advancing security forces in the Khyber tribal area bordering Afghanistan, militants and security analysts said.
The alliance has been formed to marshal scattered manpower and weapons, and deploy them under a unified military command supervised by a committee of representatives of the four member factions: Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, the Khyber-based Lashkar-i-Islam, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and ISIL “Khorasan”.
Khorasan is a historic term used by militants to describe a region including Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and northern India.
The involvement of ISIL Khorasan in the alliance represents the group’s first political and military activity in the region after announcing its formation in a video posted on militant websites on January 10.
In the video, a collection of former Pakistani and Afghan Taliban faction commanders swore an oath of allegiance to ISIL chief Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, and named a Pakistani militant, Hafiz Saeed Orakzai, as head of the South Asia chapter. Other commanders were introduced in person and by rank — a risky, defiant move, according to security analysts based in Islamabad.
ISIL Khorasan has a force of fighters numbering in the hundreds, all of them Pakistani tribesmen.
Asked by The National to confirm the formation of the alliance, the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan, responded cryptically from his Twitter account: "The unification of all holy warriors is a stated aim of our manifesto, and an alliance between Muslims is not an improbable act."
Security analysts in Islamabad and Peshawar said the four groups had formed a committee to jointly plan and direct operations, initially in Khyber and other tribal areas, and in Peshawar and other cities of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
The TTP chief, Mullah Fazlullah, has nominal political leadership of the alliance, while a senior Lashkar-i-Islam commander is head of military operations, because Khyber is the faction’s turf. Similarly, operational control in other adjacent areas in Pakistan rests with the strongest resident faction, the security analysts said.
ISIL Khorasan has provided a significant number of experienced, highly-trained fighters, and an initial injection of cash from its Syria-based leadership, and its new-found allies are excited at the prospect of attaining an official “blessing” from Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, security analysts and militants said.
The relationship between the Pakistani militants and ISIL was nurtured by Shahidullah Shahid, a former TTP spokesman, who travelled to Syria last summer for talks set up by an Afghanistan-based former Al Qaeda militant, Abu Huda Al Sudani.
“There is no doubt that ISIL now poses a serious threat to Pakistan’s security and, from what my sources in the tribal areas are telling me, that threat will grow rapidly,” said Mansur Mahsud, director of research at the Fata Research Centre, an Islamabad think tank focused on the security situation in Pakistan’s federally-administered tribal areas.
The Pakistan military’s operation in Khyber was launched after the government discovered Lashkar-i-Islam had set aside differences with the TTP and, since June, allowed it to use the forested Tirah Valley to funnel reinforcements from eastern Afghanistan to North Waziristan — the focal point of a military offensive involving more than 150,000 troops, helicopter gunships and air force jets.
Lashkar-i-Islam was quickly forced out of the adjacent farmed plains of Bara, a hashish-producing region of Khyber near Peshawar, and its leader, Mangal Bagh, reached out to his erstwhile TTP adversaries for help to maintain control over the Tirah Valley.
The TTP acquiesced and in early December announced it had sent reinforcements into Tirah, which is the last cross-border conduit available to Pakistani militants forced by the military campaign to flee into eastern Afghanistan.
As a quid pro quo for the TTP’s reinforcements, Lashkar-i-Islam facilitated the TTP massacre of 148, mostly children, at an army-run school in Peshawar on December 16, Pakistani security officials have said. The group allowed the TTP attackers to transit its territory in Tirah, and provided them logistical and intelligence support from its network of operatives in Peshawar.
The attack was launched from the Nazyan district of Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, which borders Tirah, making the area a strategic priority for Pakistan.
The prospective loss of Tirah is also of immediate strategic concern to ISIL Khorasan, because its Pakistani-dominated leadership lives in exile in eastern Afghanistan, and would be cut off from their own strongholds in Khyber and adjacent tribal and settled districts in northern Pakistan.
Following the school attack, Pakistan’s army chief of staff, General Raheel Sharif, has sought and attained the support of the US and Afghan military against insurgents based in eastern Afghanistan.
US Central Intelligence Agency drones have since repeatedly targeted Pakistani commanders in Nangarhar, and in December narrowly missed the TTP chief, Mullah Fazlullah, hitting a residential compound in Nazyan shortly after he left a meeting there. Afghan security forces and local tribal militia have fought battles with Pakistani militants and their local allies in Kunar and Nurestan, Afghan provinces located further north.
The unprecedented cooperation has come amid a thaw in relations between Islamabad and Kabul since the election in September of Ashraf Ghani as Afghan president. Encouraged by the Pakistani military’s action in North Waziristan against the Haqqani Network, an Afghan militant faction notorious for high profile cross-border suicide attacks, Mr Ghani has actively sought to improve a prickly relationship, engaging Pakistan’s closest allies, Saudi Arabia and China, as facilitators.
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Result
UAE (S. Tagliabue 90 1') 1-2 Uzbekistan (Shokhruz Norkhonov 48', 86')
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Aggro%20Dr1ft
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Roll of honour 2019-2020
Dubai Rugby Sevens
Winners: Dubai Hurricanes
Runners up: Bahrain
West Asia Premiership
Winners: Bahrain
Runners up: UAE Premiership
UAE Premiership
}Winners: Dubai Exiles
Runners up: Dubai Hurricanes
UAE Division One
Winners: Abu Dhabi Saracens
Runners up: Dubai Hurricanes II
UAE Division Two
Winners: Barrelhouse
Runners up: RAK Rugby
The specs
Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors
Power: 480kW
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh359,900 ($98,000)
On sale: Now
MATCH INFO
Quarter-finals
Saturday (all times UAE)
England v Australia, 11.15am
New Zealand v Ireland, 2.15pm
Sunday
Wales v France, 11.15am
Japan v South Africa, 2.15pm
THE SPECS
Engine: 1.5-litre, four-cylinder turbo
Transmission: seven-speed dual clutch automatic
Power: 169bhp
Torque: 250Nm
Price: Dh54,500
On sale: now
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
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THE SPECS
Jaguar F-Pace SVR
Engine: 5-litre supercharged V8
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Power: 542bhp
Torque: 680Nm
Price: Dh465,071
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The biog
Name: Mohammed Imtiaz
From: Gujranwala, Pakistan
Arrived in the UAE: 1976
Favourite clothes to make: Suit
Cost of a hand-made suit: From Dh550
Uefa Nations League: How it works
The Uefa Nations League, introduced last year, has reached its final stage, to be played over five days in northern Portugal. The format of its closing tournament is compact, spread over two semi-finals, with the first, Portugal versus Switzerland in Porto on Wednesday evening, and the second, England against the Netherlands, in Guimaraes, on Thursday.
The winners of each semi will then meet at Porto’s Dragao stadium on Sunday, with the losing semi-finalists contesting a third-place play-off in Guimaraes earlier that day.
Qualifying for the final stage was via League A of the inaugural Nations League, in which the top 12 European countries according to Uefa's co-efficient seeding system were divided into four groups, the teams playing each other twice between September and November. Portugal, who finished above Italy and Poland, successfully bid to host the finals.
North Pole stats
Distance covered: 160km
Temperature: -40°C
Weight of equipment: 45kg
Altitude (metres above sea level): 0
Terrain: Ice rock
South Pole stats
Distance covered: 130km
Temperature: -50°C
Weight of equipment: 50kg
Altitude (metres above sea level): 3,300
Terrain: Flat ice
Sri Lanka v England
First Test, at Galle
England won by 211
Second Test, at Kandy
England won by 57 runs
Third Test, at Colombo
From Nov 23-27
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BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
Friday (all kick-offs UAE time)
Hertha Berlin v Union Berlin (10.30pm)
Saturday
Freiburg v Werder Bremen (5.30pm)
Paderborn v Hoffenheim (5.30pm)
Wolfsburg v Borussia Dortmund (5.30pm)
Borussia Monchengladbach v Bayer Leverkusen (5.30pm)
Bayern Munich v Eintracht Frankfurt (5.30pm)
Sunday
Schalke v Augsburg (3.30pm)
Mainz v RB Leipzig (5.30pm)
Cologne v Fortuna Dusseldorf (8pm)
