Jamaat-ul Ansar al-Shariah Pakistan was an AQIS-linked group375 that emerged in June 2017.376 It was comprised of a small number of fighters377 who had returned from fighting for jihadist groups in the Syrian conflict. The group’s apparent objective was to achieve a revival of AQIS in Pakistan by luring ISKP and other IS members back to AQIS.378 However, by September 2017, the Dawn newspaper referred to sources confirming that the group had been dismantled and nearly all its members detained.379 Abdullah Khan, Managing Director of PICSS, told the EUAA that the group was ‘largely dysfunctional’ as of September 2024,380 and that no activity of the group had been reported ever since, which suggests that the group has become dormant.381
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Zahid, F., Jamaat ul Ansar al-Sharia: The New al-Qaeda Threat in Pakistan, The Jamestown Foundation, 22 September 2017, url; Dawn, The rise and ‘fall’ of Ansarul Sharia Pakistan, 9 September 2017, url
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Zahid, F., The Return of Al-Qaeda to Pakistan, MEI, 24 August 2017, url
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Khan, Abdullah, Managing Director of PICSS, online interview with EUAA, 26 March 2026; Dawn, The rise and ‘fall’ of Ansarul Sharia Pakistan, 9 September 2017, url
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Zahid, F., Jamaat ul Ansar al-Sharia: The New al-Qaeda Threat in Pakistan, The Jamestown Foundation, 22 September 2017, url
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Dawn, The rise and ‘fall’ of Ansarul Sharia Pakistan, 9 September 2017, url
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Khan, Abdullah, Managing Director of PICSS, online interview with EUAA, 19 September 2024
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Khan, Abdullah, Managing Director of PICSS, online interview with EUAA, 26 March 2026