"'In 2021, ISIS-K was reduced to a couple of cells in the country and a very tiny, small stronghold in Kunar Province, and that was it. However, in the less than stellar handover procedure, in that chaos, the Taliban opened the prisons, including Bagram, which was a big mistake … they underestimated that there were also a couple of thousand ISIS-K members, who, once freed, just walked off,' said Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director of the Counter Extremism Project, who served as a member and then as coordinator of the UN Security Council’s ISIL, al Qaeda and Taliban Monitoring Team.

'The organization was very diligently able to reestablish itself.'"

CEP Senior Advisor & CEP Senior Director Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler write: "Political instability in one country will inevitably have a particularly strong spillover effect across its borders. The takeover of power by the Taliban in August 2021 and the re-establishment of their regime in Afghanistan represented a shock to regional and transnational security dynamics, with neighbouring countries fearing that activities of Islamist terrorist groups present in Afghanistan would spill over into their territory. The Taliban maintain close ties with Islamist terrorist groups, essentially acting as their protector."

"New evidence is emerging that terrorist groups operating in Afghanistan are stealing humanitarian donations intended for people suffering from disasters. Also, social media companies are turning a blind eye to their terrorist activities. In this week’s episode of 'The Hunt with WTOP national security correspondent J.J. Green,' Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director at the Counter Extremism Project, said both are glaring problems."

"The non-profit Counter-Extremism Project noted in a March analysis note that the number of attacks carried out by ISIS-K appeared to drop earlier in the year, as did its propaganda initiatives to build international cache for its organization. The project attributes the drop to weather conditions as Afghanistan experiences the coldest winter in 15 years, as well as some successful Taliban operations to target and contain the group."