In early May, the Taliban announced the appointment of Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, son of its founder-leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and deputy to its current amir (leader) Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, as chief of its military commission. Ibrahim Sadr, who Yaqoob replaced, and Abdul Qayyum Zakir would... MORE

Introduction Since its advent in 2015, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)—an ambitious program of infrastructure development projects primarily financed by Chinese capital and built by Chinese state-owned companies—has been a key component of China’s larger Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) (China Brief, July 31, 2015;... MORE

Pakistan has recently faced a renewed ethno-separatist militant surge targeting its financial and energy infrastructure. Four recent attacks indicate a resurgence within the multiple secessionist groups fighting for Baluchistan independence. On June 29, the Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA), a banned ethno-separatist militant group, claimed a... MORE

One of the most interesting developments during the surge of the COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan was the decision by the Sindh High Court to overturn the death sentence of Ahmad Omar Saeed Shaikh for beheading the Wall Street Journal’s correspondent and South Asia bureau chief,... MORE

Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) has dominated the jihadist landscape of Afghanistan for the past several years while sharing turf with the powerful Taliban. It has suffered several significant setbacks in recent months, including a leadership crisis and territorial losses in its former provincial strongholds of Nangarhar... MORE

While Islamic State’s (IS) so-called caliphate was crumbling in Syria, the group was gaining ground in Afghanistan. IS’ self-styled “Khorasan Province,” a.k.a. Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K), seized swathes of land in the country, defying the setbacks for the group elsewhere. IS-K quickly became the most... MORE

Following the death of al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent’s (AQIS) founding leader Asim Umar and several of his associates in September 2019 in Afghanistan, it was believed that the youngest franchise of the international terrorist organization would be in disarray. However, the jihadist franchise seems to... MORE

Almost six years after al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent’s (AQIS) formation as the regional subsidiary of the infamous transnational jihadist group, the organization is reportedly shifting its violent campaign to Kashmir and India. On March 21, in one of its key Urdu language magazines, AQIS claimed... MORE

In February 2017, Pakistani security and law enforcement authorities managed to get Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesperson Ehsan ullah Ehsan to defect to Pakistani authorities. Or, at least, government officials proclaimed that he had surrendered to authorities and was cooperating with them (News International, February 10).... MORE

On February 29, the United States and the Taliban signed the “Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan” in Doha, Qatar. The agreement paves the way for a pullout of American troops from Afghanistan. The Taliban has pledged to disallow groups like al-Qaeda from using Afghan... MORE