Executive Summary Being the central pillar of Beijing`s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) strategy in South Asia, economic and investment activities in Pakistan pose a series of security risks and challenges for the People’s Republic of China. For now, in pursuit of physical security of... MORE

On July 4, Iran officially became a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) during a virtual summit hosted by India for the SCO Heads of State Council (Shargh Daily, July 4). Iran initially joined as an “observer member without voting rights” at the... MORE

On June 14, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) split its organizational structure in the restive Balochistan province into Qalat-Makran and Zhob Wilayat (units) with Shaheen Baloch and Maulvi Norullah as their respective emirs. The Qalat-Makran Wilayah is in Balochistan’s Baloch-dominated areas, while the Zhob Wilayah is... MORE

Wadhawa Singh Babbar is the leader of Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), or “Tigers of the True Faith,” which is a proscribed terrorist and separatist organization operating in India's state of Punjab. BKI is struggling to establish a state for Sikhs known as “Khalistan,” by means... MORE

Since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP) has centralized and vastly expanded its media apparatus, while widening its scope to include more content about regional and international political topics beyond Afghanistan (see Terrorism Monitor, May 6, 2022).... MORE

In March, al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS)’s prominent Hitteen magazine published a 455-page book. It covered the life of former AQIS top ideologue Ustad Ahmad Farooq and was written by current AQIS deputy leader Atif Yahya Ghouri—an individual on the US Department of Treasury’s... MORE

In April 2023, the first trilateral political consultation between the deputy foreign ministers of Iran, India and Armenia was held in Yerevan (Shargh Daily, April 21). The three countries focused primarily on “economic issues and regional communication channels,” and “the sides agreed to continue consultations... MORE

Turkmenistan and Pakistan continue their talks on the revival of the Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India (TAPI) pipeline, and a bilateral meeting on the issue in Islamabad will be announced soon—possibly in late June 2023. For its part, Ashgabat is keen on moving ahead with the project, while energy-deficient... MORE

Since the fall of Kabul and the return of the Afghan Taliban to power in August 2021, Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhawa (KPK) Province has faced a resurgence of Islamist terrorism. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or “Pakistani Taliban,” has perpetrated scores of terrorist attacks across KPK Province.... MORE

Introduction At a trilateral meeting in Islamabad on May 9, the foreign ministers of China, Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to extend the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) into Afghanistan and reaffirmed their support for multilateral infrastructure projects already underway, including the Central Asia-South Asia (CASA) power... MORE