United Nations: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has issued a warning over the reach of the Daesh group in South Asia. He also called for international action against the threat.

In a grim report on Daesh’s threat to international peace and security, presented to the Security Council on Tuesday, Ban said groups such as the Tehreek-e-Khilafat in Pakistan “are sufficiently attracted by its underlying ideology to pledge allegiance to its so-called caliphate and self-proclaimed caliph.”

Ban called the terrorist organisation “an unprecedented threat to international peace and security.” He said: “This is a matter of considerable concern, since these groups [extremist groups] appear to be emulating ISIL’s [Daesh’s] tactics and carrying out attacks on its behalf.”

“In 2016 and beyond, member states should prepare for a further increase in the number of foreign terrorist fighters travelling to other states on the instructions of ISIL [Daesh],” he added.

Daesh currently controls swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria, but Ban said, “The recent expansion of the ISIL [Daesh] sphere of influence across West and North Africa, the Middle East and South and Southeast Asia demonstrates the speed and scale at which the gravity of the threat has evolved in just 18 months.”

“In Afghanistan and Pakistan, ISIL [Daesh] continues to develop a network of contacts and sympathisers who carry out attacks in its name,” Ban said. “On 13 January 2016, the ISIL [Daesh] group Khorasan Province, which operates in Pakistan and Afghanistan, issued a statement claiming credit for an attack on the Pakistani Consulate in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.”

“The complexity of the recent attacks and the level of planning, coordination and sophistication involved raise concerns about its future evolution,” he warned.

However, Ban’s report did not include an incident Daesh took responsibility for, which killed more than 40 Ismailis in a bus attack in Karachi.

Pakistan appears conflicted in dealing with the Daesh challenge. Last October, General Raheel Sharif, the Pakistani Chief of the Army Staff, was quoted by the Pakistani media as saying, “There are people in Islamabad who want to show their allegiance to Daesh. So it’s a very dangerous phenomenon.”

Speaking to the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies in London, Sharif added, “I feel the future challenge is Daesh. It’s a bigger name. Al Qaida was a name, but Daesh is now a bigger name.”

However the very next month, Pakistan’s foreign ministry issued a denial. “There is no footprint of Daesh in Pakistan. We will also not tolerate anyone affiliated with it,” Foreign Office spokesperson Qazi Khalilullah was quoted as saying. However, he did allow for the fact that he knew about the group’s existence and the threat it posed, adding that the country’s security forces were on alert.

Ban said in his report that until the middle of December last year, 34 groups had reportedly pledged allegiance to Daesh. “In view of its territorial claims of more provinces, it is expected that ISIL [Daesh] affiliates will increase in number and that its membership will grow in 2016,” Ban said.

“It is able to adapt quickly to the changing environment and to persuade or inspire like-minded terrorist groups in various regions of the world to facilitate and commit acts of terrorism,” he added.

Therefore, he said, the international community must also be “adaptive” in its responses and “take comprehensive approaches that incorporate security-led counter-terrorism initiatives and preventive measures.”