Latest Articles about South Asia
Jihad and Islamism in the Maldive Islands
Maldivian President Mohammed Nasheed admitted in October, 2009 that hundreds of Maldivian Muslims had been recruited by Pakistan-based terrorist groups and are presently fighting against government forces in Pakistan. [1] The revelation by Nasheed was substantiated by video footage circulated by al-Qaeda’s media wing in... MORE
Moscow Remembers the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan
In late December 2009, the Russian press carried numerous articles reflecting on the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan and its impact on the fate of the Soviet Union. On December 25, the State Duma adopted a statement on the intervention, which recalled the sacrifices of those... MORE
A Guide to Militant Groups in Kashmir
After a few years of relative calm, militancy is slowly but surely resurfacing in the Indian administered state of Jammu and Kashmir. In a smaller-scale repeat of Mumbai, two terrorists occupied the Punjab Hotel in downtown Srinagar on January 6. They remained held up there... MORE
Pakistan’s Military Examines its Options in North Waziristan
The United States has been pressuring Pakistan for several months to extend its counterinsurgency operations to North Waziristan. The U.S. perspective is that strong militant entities, especially the Haqqani group, the Hizb-i-Islami led by Gulbuddin Hekmaytar and Taliban forces under Hafiz Gul Bahadur are using... MORE
South Asia’s Architect of Jihad: A Profile of Commander Mohammed Ilyas Kashmiri
As the sun set on February 25, 2000, a group of Indian army commandoes allegedly crossed the tense Line of Control (LoC) that divides the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir into the Pakistani-controlled portion of territory known as Azad (“Free”) Jammu and Kashmir... MORE
Abdul Basit Usman: Waziristan’s Filipino Connection
Abdul Basit Usman, a leading Filipino Muslim militant trained in bomb making, was reported killed, along with 11 other militants in a Predator drone strike along the North and South Waziristan border on January 14, 2010 (The News International [Karachi], January 22). Usman, who was said... MORE
January 2010 Briefs
TOP RANKING MILITANT SURRENDERS TO ETHIOPIAN GOVERNMENT: A PROFILE OF LICHO BUKHURA Licho Bukhura (a.k.a. Lucho Burbura), a senior militant leader of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), has surrendered to central government authorities in Addis Ababa along with some 100 other OLF fighters. Bukhura spoke... MORE
Hafiz Gul Bahadur: A Profile of the Leader of the North Waziristan Taliban
Perhaps no one has greater stature or importance in the Pakistani Taliban leadership than Hafiz Gul Bahadur, supreme commander of the North Waziristani Taliban. A direct descendant of Mirza Ali Khan, a legendary Waziristani freedom fighter who fought against the British Indian government and later... MORE
Pakistan’s Most Wanted: A Profile of Tehrik-e-Taliban Leader Baitullah Mahsud
By threatening to attack the White House and making a bizarre claim of responsibility for the shooting rampage at a U.S. immigration center in Binghamton, New York, the Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP) chief in Pakistan’s restive tribal areas, Baitullah Mahsud, has been making big headlines in global... MORE
Hybrid, Homegrown and Transnational: The Indian Mujahideen and the Islamist Terror Matrix
Following a series of urban terror attacks in 2008, including the three-day long Mumbai siege, terrorist groups maintained a low profile throughout 2009. Jihadi groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) and the homegrown Indian Mujahideen (IM) remained surprisingly inactive as they regrouped in the face... MORE