IS footprints found in Pakistan

Islamabad: Footprints of the Islamic State (IS) Sunni radical organisation were found in Pakistan's Bannu town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a media report said Friday.

Similar reports of IS presence were also received from other parts of the country, Dawn online reported.

Wall-chalking welcoming IS has now appeared in various parts of Bannu city, bordering North Waziristan tribal agency.

These also appeared on City Road, Cantonment Road, Dera Ismail Khan Road and Miran Shah Road in Bannu.

North Waziristan tribal agency is known as the Pakistani Taliban's nerve centre where the Pakistani military is carrying out Operation Zarb-i-Azb.

"We welcome the head of Syrian Daish (Arabic name for IS) Group's Abu Bakkar Al Bagdadi and pay him tributes,” says the graffiti in Urdu in various parts of Bannu district.

The message has reportedly been spread by a little-known group called Awami Baghi Group Bannu Waziristan.

Earlier, pamphlets believed to be from IS were also distributed in various parts of Peshawar and an Afghan refugee camp but were later seized.

The IS first started making inroads into Pakistan and Afghanistan in September this year as former Guantanamo detainee, Abdul Raheem Muslim Dost, was made the chief of its "Khorasan" (the old name for Afghan, Pakistani, Irani and Central Asian territories) chapter, and started gearing up to muster the support of former jihadis.

IS propaganda booklets were reportedly distributed in parts of the Afghanistan-Pakistan tribal belt and in some Afghan refugee camps in Peshawar.