On September 15, Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Uzbekistan, declared Pakistan as one of Moscow’s primary partners in South Asia. As the Russian leader put it,... MORE

Introduction In late June, a severe earthquake struck southeastern Afghanistan. In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) announced it would provide 50 million RMB ($7.2 million) in emergency aid, including tents, blankets, cots and other sorely needed supplies to... MORE

On June 18, Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP) militants attacked a Sikh place of worship, or gurdwara, in Kabul, killing two people, although Islamic State (IS) touted a much higher casualty total (The Hindu, June 19). IS formally claimed the operation through its Amaq... MORE

Myanmar Faces Arakan Army Attacks in Rakhine State Since intelligence agencies began observing ties between certain, albeit possibly peripheral, Rakhine [Arakan] militant groups and Islamic State (IS), jihadism has often been the focus of analyses on the Rakhine state insurgency in Myanmar (theweek.in, November 21,... MORE

One of the greatest nightmares for the countries of Central Asia; outside powers, such as Russia, China and the United States, who are worried about regional stability; and even for Kabul itself, which fears regional blowback, is that radicals from Afghanistan will cross into the... MORE

On June 18, the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP) claimed an attack which targeted a Sikh Gurdwara in Karta-e-Parwan area of Kabul (Dawn, June 18). While ISKP stated there were 50 Sikh and Taliban casualties, two people were reported killed. The operation lasted for... MORE

Saad Emirati was a senior founding military commander of the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP) who died in 2016 after leading the ISKP war against the Afghan Taliban, the U.S army, and Afghan armed forces in eastern Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province. However, little was known... MORE

Muhammad Suhail Shaheen is the spokesman for the Afghan Taliban’s political office in Doha, Qatar and the Afghan Taliban’s representative-designate to the United Nations. He was also a member of the Taliban’s 21-member negotiation team in Doha when it was negotiating with the U.S. These... MORE

In conjunction with the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP)’s push to broaden its appeal to speakers of Central Asian languages, an extensive and seemingly growing network of Tajik pro-Islamic State (IS) hubs has emerged using Telegram, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and other online platforms to... MORE

Since its seizure of power in August 2021, the Taliban has repeatedly asserted that it accomplished something the Ashraf Ghani administration could never do: provide nationwide security and eliminate regional transnational terror threats, the latter a topic of profound interest to Afghanistan’s neighbors, including China,... MORE