Latest Articles about Pakistan
Pakistan-Armenia Friction Has Intensified
The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Karabakh province, which has simmered since the collapse of the Soviet Union, seems to have drawn Pakistan and India into the most violent and enduring rivalry in the South Caucasus. As Yerevan and Baku both endeavor to... MORE
Foreign Fighters and Sectarian Strikes: Islamic State Makes Gains in ‘Af-Pak’ Region
Since its formation nearly two years ago, Islamic State (IS) in Afghanistan, known as IS Khorasan, has struggled to maintain a foothold in an ever-competitive jihadist landscape. Its disregard for local sensitivities and a number of setbacks on the battlefield had relegated it to a... MORE
The Arrest of Asif Choto: A Serious Blow to Pakistan’s Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
Islamist terrorist organizations in Pakistan have not been very successful in recruiting rank and file from Karachi. The city developed a culture somewhat resistant to their influence, which is demonstrated by local voting patterns. People in the southern port city and financial capital of Pakistan... MORE
Karachi’s Security Crackdown a Boost for Pakistan’s Islamists
Political violence and gang wars in Karachi have remained a critical issue for the Pakistani authorities over the years. The situation even became an agenda item in the country’s National Action Plan on counter-terrorism, an initiative that received unanimous approval in parliament following the 2014... MORE
Qari Abdul Rauf Asghar: The New Face of Jaish-e-Mohammad
The resurgence of the Islamist-Kashmiri terrorist organization Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) with the Pathan Kot Air Force Base attack in January 2016 was indeed disquieting. Seven security personnel and all five attackers were killed in the three-day skirmish (January 2-5) (Indian Express, May 3). JeM is infamous... MORE
India Alarmed by Implications of First Pakistani-Russian Joint Military Exercise
On September 24, Russia and Pakistan began their first-ever joint military exercises, “Friendship 2016.” Roughly 70 personnel from a mechanized infantry brigade based in Russia’s Southern Military District are participating in the 16-day exercise along with 130 Pakistani troops. The two countries’ Armed Forces are... MORE
Pakistan’s Jamaat-ul-Ahrar: A Violent Domestic Threat
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), once a disgruntled breakaway faction of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), has been behind a series of deadly attacks across Pakistan since March 2016, apparently contradicting the Pakistani Army’s claim to have eliminated terrorism from North Waziristan and the Khyber Agency through years of its... MORE
Pakistan’s LeJ Baluchistan Operations Ready for Resurgence
Sectarian violence in Pakistan’s troubled Baluchistan province dropped dramatically with the death of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi’s (LeJ) leader Usman Saifullah Kurd in 2015. Attacks, however, have continued under the group’s new leader, Dawood Badini, and LeJ appears as intent as ever on targeting members of the Hazara-Shia... MORE
Alms for Jihad: Profiling Jamaat ud Dawa’s Humanitarian Face Hafiz Abdul Rauf
Animesh Roul Pakistan based Jamaat-ud Dawa (JuD), the internationally proscribed Islamic socio-political front of the terrorist group Lashkar-e Taiba (LeT), often blends violence with humanitarian activities in order to garner greater legitimacy and wider acceptance within the country as the true defender of Islam. JuD... MORE