LAKKI MARWAT – The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’s (ISIS) Khorasan branch on Friday issued a public statement in the name of its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, to call on Afghans and Pakistanis to change their lifestyles to cater to the demands of climate change.
ISIS Khorasan, which encompasses the region around the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, is expanding to new areas, widening its reach and recruiting fighters to battle climate change, the jihadist group’s officials said in Friday sermons throughout the province.
Some members of the so-called “Khorasan Province” of ISIS claimed responsibility for key outcomes in November’s COP22, the UN climate talks in Marrakech. These include support for the Adaptation Fund to address the needs of countries most vulnerable to climate change and the organisation of the “2018 facilitative dialogue” to take stock of “how climate action was going so far”.
The Khorasan leader, Hafiz Saeed Khan’s successor, whose identity is still unknown, ordered ISIS factions to ensure energy efficiency at all madrassas, replace biofuels running generators in load-shedding affected areas with ethanol derived from crops, reduce greenhouse gases in tanks and trucks captured from fleeing NATO soldiers and most importantly tackle carbon emissions from bomb blasts, especially focusing on upping the efficiency of suicide jackets.
In a statement given to the official ISIS magazine Dabiq, al- Baghdadi appreciated the endeavours of the Khorasan Province. “We’ll soon have to flee Iraq and Levant and shift our base to Khorasan. It would be a pleasant change to live in an energy efficient environment,” the caliph said.
