Latest Articles about South Asia
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi’s Next Generation Commander: Yousaf Mansoor Khurasani
Few Islamist terrorist organizations in Pakistan are as resilient as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ). The violent sectarian outfit surfaced in 1990, after the assassination of Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, an anti-Shia, ultra-orthodox Deobandi cleric and founder of sectarian political party Sipah-e-Sahaba (Army of the Companions). And since the... MORE
Sanctioning Syed Salahuddin: Too Little, Too Late
On June 26, the U.S. State Department announced the designation of Mohammad Yusuf Shah (a.k.a. Syed Salahuddin) as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT). The 71-year-old is “supreme commander” of the Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), the largest Kashmiri militant group operating in the Kashmir Valley, and... MORE
The South-West Transport Corridor Project and the Geopolitical Reshaping of the South Caucasus
Baku hosted the first joint gathering of the heads of the railway administrations of Iran, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine and Poland, on June 19. The meeting was dedicated to the newly-launched “South-West Transport Corridor,” which links into the broader Trans-Caspian International Route project launched in 2016.... MORE
Jaish al-Adl’s Reemergence Threatens Iran-Pakistan Relations
Pakistan’s tense relations with its neighbor Iran were further impacted on April 27 when militants from Jaish al-Adl (JuA, Army of Justice), a Sunni group that allegedly operates from across the border in Pakistan, killed 10 Iranian border guards in an attack in Iran’s Baluchistan-Sistan... MORE
Breaking With Kashmiri Militant Tradition: A Profile of Mujahideen Taliban-e-Kashmir Commander Zakir Musa
Zakir Rashid Bhat (a.k.a. Zakir Musa), a former Hizb-ul Mujahideen (HuM, Party of Holy Warriors) commander, has been in the news lately for virtually redefining the long-standing Kashmir militant movement. With his incendiary messages, often interwoven with violent Islamist preaching, he is now calling for... MORE
Does Islamic State Pose a Threat to India?
India first woke up to the emerging threat of Islamic State (IS) on its soil in May 2014, when four engineering students from Kalyan, Maharashtra, joined the group. In the intervening years, the security services have arrested more than 90 IS sympathizers, according to Indian... MORE
Uzbekistan Alters Its Vision for Afghanistan
After the change of leadership in Uzbekistan, it has been widely acknowledged that the country’s new president, Shavkat Mirziyaev, is pursuing a more proactive and constructive regional diplomacy in Central Asia than his predecessor (see EDM, October 26, 2016; December 15, 2016). Along with Mirziyaev’s... MORE
Life After Death: The Dangerous Rhetoric of Pakistani Televangelist Tariq Jameel
Since the start of the Global War on Terror, Pakistan has experienced widespread suicide bombings perpetrated by Islamist terrorist organizations ranging from global groups like al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS) to local groups such as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. [1] As the death toll... MORE
IS Khorasan’s Renewed Leadership Question: A Profile of Slain Leader Sheikh Abdul Haseeb Logari
The Islamic State’s Khorasan (IS-K) group in Afghanistan suffered a major setback in late April 2017 when a joint U.S. and Afghan military raid killed Sheikh Abdul Haseeb Logari, the Wali (governor), along with many IS-K militants in eastern Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province. [1] The group,... MORE