Latest Articles about South Asia
Chinese Analysts Interpret Modi’s New India
The landslide victory by Narendra Modi in India’s national elections has raised questions throughout Asia about India’s role in the region. Chinese experts have watched the transition with great interest, many seeking historical analogies to explain the new leader. One of the most optimistic is... MORE
A Review of Abubakar Siddique’s The Pashtun Question: The Unresolved Key to the Future of Pakistan and Afghanistan
For decades, works on the Pashtuns of Afghanistan and Pakistan were limited to an aging generation of Western academicians tucked away in ivory towers. These scholars carried out their field research in the region prior to the 1979 Soviet invasion. Few of this generation of... MORE
Ansar-ut Tawhid and the Transnational Jihadist Threat to India
Transnational Islamist terrorist groups have recently made sporadic attempts to lure India’s Muslim population towards global jihad, frequently urging them to fight the democratically elected secular government. India-specific incitements have issued from al-Qaeda chief Ayman al Zawahiri and al-Qaeda ideologue Maulana Asim Umar through audio-visual... MORE
Haji Najibullah: A Brief Glimpse of the Leader of Afghan Taliban Splinter Group Feda’i Mahaz
A clandestine Taliban splinter group claimed the killing of British-Swedish journalist Nils Horner in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul in March. With this act, Islami Tehrik Fedai Mahaz, led by Haji Najibullah, achieved the international notoriety that the group with its media propaganda has been working toward.... MORE
Beijing, Kunming, Urumqi and Guangzhou: The Changing Landscape of Anti-Chinese Jihadists
During the roughly six months since China suffered its first-ever car bombing in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on October 31, 2013, China has witnessed a series of other terrorist attacks on its territory. Such attacks included a mass stabbing at a train station in Kunming that... MORE
Modi Faces Pressing Questions About India’s China Policy
Traditionally, Indian policy toward China has been mostly characterized by continuity. As far as Beijing is concerned, in spite of regime change in the past, India has pursued steady engagement with its northern neighbor. Now that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by the nationalist... MORE
Can Ashgabat Reconcile Kabul With the Taliban?
The government of Turkmenistan has begun mobilizing the country’s army reservists and has sent them to the border with Afghanistan. At least a few dozen reservists were deployed to the town of Serhetabad, (formerly known as Kushka) on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan border. The border situation worsened... MORE
Indian Investigations Reveal Funding System for Promoting Jihad in Kashmir
After pursuing a cross-border money laundering case for several years, Indian investigative agencies have zeroed in on the leadership of the Pakistan-based Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) and its front charity organization for allegedly funding terror activities in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K, Indian-administered Kashmir) and beyond. On... MORE
Iran’s Sunni Baloch Extremists Operating from Bases in Pakistan
An Iranian Sunni extremist group operating out of hideouts in southwestern Pakistan, Jaysh al-Adl (JA - Army of Justice), has started to threaten Iran’s security and darken relations between Tehran and Islamabad. Days after JA abducted five border guards from a remote border post in... MORE
Will ‘Dostumistan’ Be Established Near Afghanistan’s Border With Uzbekistan?
In January 2014, the chairman of the National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan party, General Abdul Rashid Dostum, a well-known politician and leader of ethnic Uzbeks in Afghanistan, made unofficial visits to Uzbekistan’s capital of Tashkent, the Kazakhstani capital of Astana, and Almaty—Kazakhstan’s largest city. According... MORE