Fourteen border guards in the southeastern Iranian region of Saravan were assassinated and five seriously wounded on October 25 by a shadowy militant Sunni group known as Jaysh al-Adl (JA – Army of Justice) (IRNA, October 25; Mehr News, October 25). In retaliation, Iranian authorities... MORE

Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Hakimullah Mahsud was killed by a predator strike on November 1 in Pakistan's North Waziristan region. After a brief tug of war for leadership, the Pakistani Taliban central shura (consultative council) elected Maulana Fazlullah as the new amir of the TTP... MORE

With China promoting its own Silk Road vision in Central Asia, it seems that the New Silk Road Initiative promoted by the United States has been eclipsed. Nonetheless, there is still an opportunity for the US to promote much-needed trade relations between Central Asia and... MORE

Indian Premier Manmohan Singh’s October 21–22 visit to Moscow not only reaffirmed traditional Indo-Russian amity, it also revealed significant trends in Asian developments that affect both parties as well as other key players like the United States, China and Pakistan. In some respects, the deal... MORE

China’s trade-backed charm offensive has reached India and the United Kingdom, as Chinese leaders signed a raft of trade deals with the United Kingdom and a border pact with India that may reduce incidents along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). These follow high-profile trade... MORE

The CASA-1000 project is confidently moving forward (see EDM, October 7) and the construction work, although a little delayed, reportedly will start in 2014 (https://www.regnum.ru/news/fd-abroad/polit/1708783.html). CASA-1000 is a large-scale proposed series of hydroelectric dams and power generation sites in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan that would be... MORE

During the first week of October 2013, a high-level delegation of India’s Department of Atomic Energy visited Uzbekistan to discuss bilateral cooperation in the field of nuclear energy. According to several informal reports published in the Indian media, New Delhi expects to sign a four-year... MORE

Although India is not a party to the South China Sea dispute, in recent years—particularly since Secretary of State Hilary Clinton vigorously advocated freedom of navigation in the South China Sea at the Asian Regional Forum meeting in Hanoi in July 2010, and India endorsed... MORE

On September 16–17, officials from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Pakistan and Afghanistan met in Islamabad to sign a Resolution on Contracting Structure and Commercial Principles in the effort to launch the CASA-1000 trade and energy project in 2014. The parties hope CASA-1000 will help bring electricity from... MORE

Maulana Masood Azhar is one of the most dreaded Pakistani jihad leaders within the Indian political and security establishments. Formerly associated with the Harkat troika (Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami [HujI], Harkat-ul-Mujahideen [HuM], Harkat-ul-Ansar [HuA]—HujI-HuM-HuA), Masood Azhar and his Kashmiri militant brethren brought the government of Indian Prime Minister... MORE