Executive Summary The official reactions of key militant factions based in Pakistan and Afghanistan to the “al-Aqsa Storm” attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023 reflected an interesting array of agendas and priorities. Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) issued an immediate response... MORE

Executive Summary Pakistan's army chief visited the United States in December to "reset" strained relations and potentially secure American aid in the hopes of ameliorating Pakistan's ongoing economic crisis and rising militant threat. Since the 2021 Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, there has been a 65... MORE

Executive Summary The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) militant group in Pakistan opposes Chinese investment projects in Balochistan province, viewing China as complicit in Pakistani government oppression of their people. The BLA has carried out multiple attacks against Chinese nationals and China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) installations... MORE

Immediately after the fall of Mosul in June 2014 and the subsequent declaration of a “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria, Islamic State (IS) reached out to Islamist terrorist networks, cultivated contacts, and developed franchises in South Asia and Afghanistan. IS’s caliph, Abubakar al-Baghdadi, demanded all... MORE

Two Baluch separatist groups involved in 20 years of violent insurgency are reportedly in talks to merge and establish a unified militant group. The two groups involved in the unification of the “liberation movement” are the Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF) and the Bashir Zaib faction... MORE

On July 21, clashes between Shafiq Mengal’s “death squad” and fighters loyal to Baloch nationalist leader Sardar Akhtar Mengal left four people dead in Wadh, Khuzdar District in Balochistan. Sardar Akhtar Mengal claimed that state-sponsored militias in Balochistan, namely Shafiq Mengal’s death squad, were formed... MORE

2023 marks the 10th anniversary of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the flagship project of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The project was initially thought so significant that it was included as part of China's 13th five-year development plan (NDRC, 2016). However, the decade-long... MORE

On October 14, Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Transport held talks via videoconference with the transport ministers from Kazakhstan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Iran regarding plans to develop new regional transit corridors (Azernews, October 14). This comes as Tashkent, Ashgabat, and Tehran have expanded cooperation in developing a... MORE

On June 15, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or “Pakistani Taliban,” announced the establishment of two new “shadow provinces” in Punjab, Pakistan’s most populated province: “North Punjab” and “South Punjab.” This brought the total number of the group’s parallel proto-administrative units in Pakistan to twelve (Twitter/TheKhorasanDiary,... MORE

On July 31, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the convention of Islamic political party Jamiat Uema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) in Khar, Bajaur District. The suicide bombing was later claimed by Islamic State’s (IS) Amaq News Agency on behalf of Islamic State in Khorasan Province... MORE