In a clear but still gradual shift over the past year, Chinese policymakers have changed their stance on Afghanistan from cultivated disinterest to growing engagement. As the potential security vacuum left by Western withdrawal in 2014 comes into sharper relief, Beijing has come to realize... MORE

SWISS JUND AL-KHILAFAH AMIR KILLED IN MIRANSHAH, PAKISTAN Jund al-Khilafah (JaK) is a terrorist group based in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, which was founded by three Kazakhstani men from Atyrau (see Terrorism Monitor, September 13). Although JaK issued several propaganda videos about Kazakhstan in 2011... MORE

Earlier in October, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin traveled to India to complete discussions ahead of President Vladimir Putin’s planned trip there and to negotiate nuclear and arms deals. Perhaps not surprisingly, given Rogozin’s charm as a diplomat, Putin’s trip was postponed and overt... MORE

The security situation in the Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) state of India has reached a new low in the past few months as militant organizations backed by Islamabad have stepped up a campaign of politically-motivated violence by targeting vital infrastructure in the region and attacking... MORE

Iqbal Bhatkal is a co-founder of the Indian Mujahideen (IM). The IM is the first Indian terrorist group which has been designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the United States. [1] Iqbal Bhatkal became the first IM leader whose name the Central Bureau of... MORE

Riyaz Ismail Shahbandari aka Riyaz Bhatkal is one of the top Indian jihadis and co-founders of the Indian Mujahideen (IM). He is the younger brother of IM ideologue, Iqbal Bhatkal, another co-founder of the IM. [1] Riyaz has been involved in several high profile terrorist... MORE

The Afghan newspaper Arman-e-Malli carried one of the first reports about members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) operating in Afghanistan’s Kunduz province in August, 2009. In January 2010, Kunduz governor Mohammad Omar, who was assassinated seven months later in a bombing at a mosque in... MORE

The Bajaur chapter of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has been facing displacement from their native Bajaur Agency since August, 2008 due to a Pakistani military operation named “Sherdil” (Urdu for “Lion Heart”). It is also witnessing rising inter-Taliban and intra-Taliban group differences, coupled with leadership... MORE

Burma has undergone significant changes in recent years, as increasing pressure from the United States and other Western powers to democratize and respect human rights has mounted. The work of political dissident Aung San Suu Kyi’s, which won her a Nobel Peace prize and inspired... MORE

“The [United States] can work with India over its growing role in the world,” US Ambassador to India Nancy Powell said at a discussion with her Indian counterpart Nirupama Rao on September 17, adding that Washington can work with Central Asian states and New Delhi... MORE