Unidentified people have distributed pamphlets of the Islamic State (IS) Sunni radical group in Pakistan’s South Waziristan tribal region, residents who have seen the pamphlets said Wednesday.
Officials have, however, said that the IS has no existence in the region and someone has distributed the pamphlets only for “ulterior motives”, according to Xinhua.
Unidentified people had previously distributed IS pamphlets in major cities, including Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar as well as in Afghan refugee camps in northwest Pakistan. But it is the first time the pamphlets of the IS have been distributed in South Waziristan, the birthplace of the Taliban.
Tribesmen in Wana, the centre of South Waziristan, said they found the Urdu-language and hand-written pamphlets in the morning in the main marketplace.
They said that unidentified people had thrown the papers in Rustam Bazaar, which praised the people for supporting a splinter Taliban group in the area. The Maulvi Nazeer militant group has influence in Wana and surrounding area which is not part of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Maulvi Nazeer was killed in a US drone strike last year.
The pamphlets said the IS’s founder has “instructed to take action against those who are responsible” for the killing of the militants.
The paper also accused a tribal elder for spying on the militants for the US drone strikes.
Local officials in Wana downplayed the pamphlet and the administrative officer in South Waziristan, Islam Zeb, said there was no existence of the IS in the area and some people wanted to create panic through the group’s pamphlets.
He said no militant group now operated in Wana and the authorities have started searching for those who have distributed the pamphlets and they would soon be arrested.
Six Pakistani Taliban leaders, including their spokesman Shahidullah Shahid, joined the IS last month after they parted ways with the TTP.
(IANS)