The Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan is likely to have emboldened UK terrorists, at the head of MI5 has warned. Director-general Ken McCullum said while the terrorist would not change soon, there could be a morale boost for the extremists.
There is also a concern regarding terrorists. They can regroup and plan up powerful plots. A total of 31 late-stage attacks the UK has experienced in the past four years. It includes 6 attacks during the pandemic period alone. There is also a growing number of attacks that the extreme right-wing group is planning. The terrorist threat to the UK is a much-enduring thing.
Mr. McCullum said that the small-scale terrorist attacks make MI5 face a large number of threats.
He said, “There is no doubt that events in Afghanistan will have heartened and emboldened some of those extremists and so being vigilant to precisely those kinds of risks is what my organization is focused on along with a range of other threats.”
There is still a risk of an increase in the larger plots that al-Qaeda might direct. He further added, “The big concern flowing from Afghanistan alongside the immediate inspirational effect is the risk that terrorists reconstitute and once again pose us more in the way of well-developed, sophisticated plots of the sort that we faced in 9/11 and the years thereafter.”
The government says it will judge the Taliban resurgence with their auctions. The UK security service will plan for the possibility of more risk. The terrorist threats will not change overnight in the direction of plotting the infrastructure of training camps. These are the sorts of things that al-Qaeda enjoyed in 9/11.
These things take time to build. 20 years of effort to reduce the terrorist threat from the Afghanistan war was successful. It is quite difficult to say if the UK is safer or not now. According to him, the Islamic State has managed to do something that al-Qaeda didn’t. It is in the spring lot of people attempt small-scale acts of terrorism. He further added that they need to be vigilant for both the terrorism and the potential regrowth of al Qaeda – style plots.
He fears that the Taliban and extremist jihadist groups are in each other’s pockets. But scores will get settled, and it has to repay the debts. There will be ungoverned space opening up in Afghanistan. Moreover, it will help the Taliban to exploit the ability of those extremist groups.
Credits: BBC
