Former Pakistan Minister claims to have proof of IS presence in the country

Islamabad: Pakistan's former interior minister Rehman Malik has claimed that he had documentary evidence about the presence of the dreaded Islamic State terror group in the country.

He said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif should sensitise the world community about the rapid penetration of IS into several countries and use the forum of SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) for setting up of an international desk for sharing information about the group's activities.

"I have solid proofs that Daish (or IS) has established its contacts with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and it is quite possible that one of Taliban leaders will soon be named as its chief in Pakistan," Malik was quoted as saying by the Dawn newspaper.

When asked about documents he possessed, the Pakistan People's Party leader said: "I will brief the nation about documentary proofs and will make them public in a couple of days."

He expressed disappointment over the PML-N government's response to the threat and said it was paying no heed to track down the IS terrorists in the country.

"Instead of remaining in a state of denial, the government should take serious action before Daish spreads like Talibanisation did and pushes the country into another phase of terrorism," he said.

Malik said the country had already suffered a lot as thousands of children, men, women and troops had lost their lives in terrorist attacks.

He called upon the government to take the nation into confidence on actions it had taken after reports about presence of IS flags and banners in several Pakistani cities. He asked Prime Minister Sharif to set up a task force to prevent IS from taking root in the country.

In recent weeks, some Taliban rebels and a few militant groups have pledged allegiance to the IS. However, Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan said that there was no threat of IS in Pakistan.

IS or ISIS is an al-Qaeda splinter group and it has seized hundreds of square miles in Iraq and Syria. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the militant group, declared himself as Caliph renamed the ISIS as Islamic State. Al-Qaeda has distanced itself from the group, chiding it for its lack of teamwork in its aggressive, brutal expansion.