
Latest Articles about South Asia

Two Years on, State of Pakistani Security Continues to Deteriorate After Taliban Seizure of Afghanistan
The Baloch separatist insurgency in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province has been taking on more dangerous features since the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul in August 2021. Separatist violence has dramatically increased, with women carrying out suicide bombings (see TM, May 20, 2022; MLM, August 5, 2022) as the... MORE

Qari Fasihuddin Fitrat: The Afghan Taliban’s Tajik “Commander of the North”
Qari Fasihuddin Fitrat is the military commander of the armed forces of the Taliban-led Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA). An ethnic Tajik, Fitrat is currently leading the war on Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP). In June, Fitrat announced that the perpetrators of ISKP bombings... MORE

Putin Grows More Paranoid of Potential Threats to Power
Until June 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin was apparently quite confident in his power and the lack of any true challenge to it. Anti-Putin activists were successfully squeezed out of the country, the most vociferous were imprisoned or killed. The more measured dissatisfied voices largely... MORE

TJP: A Front Group for the Pakistani Taliban?
On July 12, nine Pakistani army soldiers and five militants were killed after security forces retaliated for a “dastardly attack” on Zhob garrison in the northern part of Pakistan's southwestern province of Balochistan (Dawn, July 12). The Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan (TJP), a relatively new militant group,... MORE

Pakistani Taliban Broaden Support Among Baloch, Merge With Separatist Groups
On February 24, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP, also known as the “Pakistani Taliban”) called on the disillusioned Baloch people in southern Balochistan province to launch an anti-state jihadist war to free themselves of Pakistani atrocities and end the government’s military oppression of the region (Umar... MORE

India Losing Its Steep Discount on Russian Crude Oil
The discount enjoyed by India on Russian crude oil since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has now shrunk from around $30 to $4 per barrel. Yet, while steep discounts have plunged, the Russian-managed shipping rates continue to remain higher than normal. India is... MORE

Azerbaijan Concerned by India’s Weapons Sales to Armenia
Recent events in the South Caucasus have highlighted an overlooked development in the global weapons market: the rise of India as an arms exporter. Armenia has purchased Indian armaments amid ongoing tensions with Azerbaijan, a close ally of Pakistan and Turkey, procuring a variety of... MORE

Russia’s Uncertain Aims for Moon Exploration
On August 11, Russia launched its long-delayed Luna-25 mission to the Moon, with the probe aiming to land on the lunar surface in the coming days (TASS, August 11). The main purposes of the Luna-25 launch include the demonstration of Moscow’s technological prowess and landing... MORE

Water Conflict Between Iran and Afghan Taliban Stirs Sectarian Tensions
On May 27, a clash occurred between the Armed Forces of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the “Taliban”) and Iranian border guards along the two states’ shared border. Specifically, the battle occurred in the stretch of land where Afghanistan’s Nimruz Province meets Iran’s Sistan and... MORE

Ukraine’s ‘Counteroffensive’ in the Global South
The low-profile and high-impact meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on August 5 and 6 was never intended to produce a road map for ending the war in Ukraine; neither was it a summit, since the invitations sent to some 40 countries specified the level of... MORE