political or other differences upon taking power the taliban reportedly executed an imprisoned former iskp leader in august 2021 some have speculated that taliban hardliners might defect to iskp if taliban leaders compromise on certain issues as they begin governingthe haqqani networkthe haqqani network is an official and semiautonomous component of the afghan taliban and an ally of the alqaida headed by sirajuddin haqqani a shadowy figure who has also served as the deputy leader of the taliban the group is reported to have a highly skilled core of members who specialize in complex attacks and provide technical skills such as improvised explosive device and rocket construction the haqqani network is blamed for some of the deadliest attacks of the war in afghanistan including the death or injury of hundreds of us troops and has historically been described as close to pakistans intelligence agencyties with taliban the haqqani network while retaining a semiautonomous status still reports directly to the taliban supreme councilaccording to a united nations security council unsc report haqqani remains a hub for outreach and cooperation with regional foreign terrorist groups and is the primary liaison between the taliban and alqaidaother groupsthere are a host of smaller islamist groups that operate in afghanistan either autonomously or as affiliates of larger groupstehriketaliban pakistan ttpknown as the pakistani taliban ttp has distinctive antipakistan objectives and has fought alongside taliban against the afghan government inside afghanistanthe pakistanorigin group was formed around 2007 but began to splinter after 2013 after the death of its leader hakimullah mehsud subsequently some of its members pledged allegiance to isis and relocated to eastern afghanistan the military pressure in the wartorn country impacted the groups activity however the group has started reunifying since 2020 with its ranks being boosted by leaders from other splinter groups it is said to benefit from the taliban takeover and release of ttp prisoners the us congress thinktank report saidislamic movement of uzbekistan imuthe imu was formed by uzbeks who fought with islamist forces in tajikistans 19921997 civil war it has launched various attacks on central asian states and was be a prominent alqaida allyafter us invaded afghanistan in 2001 imu shifted its focus to afghanistan and pakistan un sanctions monitors report that the imu is under the control of the taliban which is less accommodating than it used to be given previous imu moves to align with iskp imu forces operate in northern afghanistaneastern turkistan islamic movement etimetim also known as the turkistan islamic party wants to establish an independent islamic state for the uighurs a muslimmajority turkicspeaking people in western china the group had ties with alqaidaun sanctions monitors reported in june 2021 that etim has hundreds of fighters in northeast afghanistan and a larger presence in idlib syria and moves fighters between the two areas in afghanistan etim is reportedly focused on china