On December 1, the U.S. announced it added four veteran Pakistani jihadist leaders to its list of global terrorists as a part of its “relentless efforts to ensure that terrorists do not use Afghanistan as a platform for international terrorism.” The individuals placed on the... MORE

On November 22, after months of silence, the Baloch Nationalist Army (BNA)’s spokesman, Mureed Baloch, confirmed the arrest of BNA leader Gulzar Imam (The Khorasan Diary, November 22). Turkish authorities arrested Gulzar upon his arrival in the country from Iran and then handed him over... MORE

A breakaway group of the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), which is headed by a student-turned-leader named Bashir Zaib, kidnapped two junior officers of Pakistan's military on September 25 in the restive southwestern Balochistan province. The abductees were a junior military officer and an intelligence officer... MORE

On September 28, a Chinese national was killed and two others were injured when an unidentified assailant opened fire at a dental clinic in Pakistan's largest city of Karachi, the capital of Sindh province. Chinese-origin Pakistani dentists, Dr. Richard Hu and his wife Phen Teyin, sustained... MORE

Following trends of heightened U.S-China great power competition, the narratives of global jihadist groups are morphing simultaneously. After 9/11, the U.S was at the receiving end of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS)’s propaganda. However, in the context of the U.S-China global rivalry, the Islamic... MORE

On September 27, the Taliban government in Afghanistan disclosed a deal it signed with Russia to import petroleum products and wheat at a discounted rate (Al Jazeera, September 28). The deal came days before Russia agreed to provide petrol to Pakistan on deferred payments and... MORE

The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP, or “Pakistani Taliban”) now has a confirmed presence not only in northwestern Pakistan's Swat district, but also in Dir, Bajaur, and Buner districts. After a military operation in Swat in 2009, the TTP had been expelled from the area, but TTP... MORE

After the fall of the Afghan government in August 2021, Taliban-ruled Afghanistan once again emerged as a safe haven for Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the “Pakistani Taliban.” Despite serious complaints from the Pakistani government, the Afghan Taliban have taken few measures to dislodge... MORE

Introduction In mid-July, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy and the Pakistan Navy (PN) held the “Sea Guardians-2” exercise in the waters off Shanghai (China Brief, October 4; Pakistan Television, July 12). The joint naval drills focused on neutralizing maritime security threats, particularly those that... MORE

On July 30, al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, who replaced Osama bin Laden in 2011, was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan. U.S. President Joseph R. Biden announced his death on August 1 saying that, “Now justice has been delivered, and this terrorist leader... MORE