Latest Articles about South Asia
The Face of Bangladeshi Jihad: Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif (a.k.a. Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury)
Animesh Roul The Islamic State’s (IS) announcement of a “Bengal unit” in its propaganda magazine Dabiq (issue No 12) in November 2015 left the entire Indian subcontinent flummoxed. That issue very prominently featured a chapter dedicated to the “Revival of Jihad in Bangladesh.” Subsequently, through... MORE
The South Asian Televangelism Network of Salafist Preacher Dr. Zakir Naik
Farhan Zahid Few Islamist televangelists in South Asia have achieved the momentous success that Indian Salafist preacher Dr. Zakir Naik has in such short span of time. In fact, there are a number of televangelists, such as Dr. Israr Ahmad of Tehreek-e-Islami, Zaid Zaman Hamid... MORE
Pakistan’s LeJ Baluchistan Operations Ready for Resurgence
Sectarian violence in Pakistan’s troubled Baluchistan province dropped dramatically with the death of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi’s (LeJ) leader Usman Saifullah Kurd in 2015. Attacks, however, have continued under the group’s new leader, Dawood Badini, and LeJ appears as intent as ever on targeting members of the Hazara-Shia... MORE
Moscow ‘Bypassing’ Armenia to Reach Azerbaijan, Iran and India
Perhaps the most important geopolitical development of mid-July 2016 was not the continuing conflict in the South China Sea, the failed coup in Turkey, or terrorist violence in France—all of which attracted considerable international attention—but rather the quiet signing, in Moscow, of an agreement by... MORE
India Treads a Delicate Line With State-Sponsorship of Anti-Maoist Groups
India’s controversial anti-Maoist vigilante group, Samajik Ekta Manch (SEM), has announced it will disband. Set up in December 2015 with the stated goal of ridding Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region of Maoists and supporting the police in their work, the SEM had claimed to be a peaceful... MORE
Alms for Jihad: Profiling Jamaat ud Dawa’s Humanitarian Face Hafiz Abdul Rauf
Animesh Roul Pakistan based Jamaat-ud Dawa (JuD), the internationally proscribed Islamic socio-political front of the terrorist group Lashkar-e Taiba (LeT), often blends violence with humanitarian activities in order to garner greater legitimacy and wider acceptance within the country as the true defender of Islam. JuD... MORE
Istanbul and Aktobe Attacks Highlight Central Asians’ Role in Transnational Terrorist Networks
Since the start of the Syrian war in 2011, Central Asians have featured prominently among the anti-government militants. But until June 2016, as far as Central Asia was concerned, the impact of the war was contained almost entirely to Syria and Iraq and remote parts... MORE
Future of the SCO Under Question After Tashkent Summit
The fifteenth meeting of the heads of state of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) took place on June 23–24, in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Participation in these annual meetings has been growing over the past several years and was even bigger this time as negotiations for admitting... MORE