CEP Senior Director Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler writes: "Two years ago, the world saw the return of a repressive Taliban regime. The rapid fall of the Afghan government sent shockwaves throughout neighbouring countries and beyond, as the new Taliban powerbrokers in Kabul systematically degraded human rights and afforded protection to a long list of Al-Qaeda linked terrorist groups in Afghanistan."

"'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.'"