Latest Articles about South Asia
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
Bangladesh Launches Crackdown on Islamist Threat
After months denying the existence of transnational jihadist groups on its soil in the face of a violent campaign against secular and progressive forces, Bangladeshi authorities appear to have woken up to the reality of extremist militancy. Following a series of knife and machete attacks,... MORE
Taliban Victories in Helmand Province Prove Test for Afghan Government
Days after a U.S. drone strike killed the Taliban leader Mullah Akhar Mohammad Mansur in southwestern Pakistan on May 21, Afghan lawmakers warned of the impending collapse of Afghanistan's largest province. "Helmand is on the verge of collapse; 58 people were martyred during a single... MORE
Assessing the Death of Mullah Mansour and its Impact on the Taliban Leadership
Dr. Syed Adnan Ali Shah Bukhari and Dr. Sadia Sulaiman The death of Mullah Akhtar Mansour in a U.S. drone strike in Nushki district of Balochistan Province on May 21, has put the Taliban insurgent movement back on a powder keg. Additionally, it has the... MORE
Naeem Bokhari: Military Mastermind of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
Farhan Zahid This past February, the Karachi police and the Sindh Rangers, a Pakistani paramilitary force, foiled a terrorist plot to stage a massive jailbreak in southeast Pakistan. The operation, which appears to have been intelligence-led, was one of the largest and most successful joint... MORE
The Zainabiyoun Brigade: A Pakistani Shiite Militia Amid the Syrian Conflict
Since the outbreak of Syrian Civil War in 2011, a plethora of violent Islamist groups have surfaced in various parts of the country, some fighting for the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, and many fighting against it. According to an estimate from the Soufan Group,... MORE