Afghan peace process: Marred by short-sightedness (South Asia Monitor: March 12, 2015)

"The new peace process conceived by President Ashraf Ghani ultimately aims at reaching a power sharing deal with the Afghan Taliban. This latest peace process is as superficial as the previous ones because it does not demand an ideological course correction from Taliban. The Afghan Taliban remains committed to ultra-radical version of Deobandi Islam and had championed a barbaric medieval theocratic state in Afghanistan during its days in power where public flogging, stoning, beheadings and iconoclasm were perpetrated by the state machinery. Today the Islamic State is repeating just that in Iraq and Syria."

"The importance of such an ideological declaration is evident from the experience of Egypt with the Muslim Brotherhood. Though the Muslim Brotherhood had renounced the use of violent means to achieve political ends as early as 1949 and was a key participant in the Tahrir Square agitation against the Hosni Mubarak regime, when it came to power after participating in the 2012 presidential elections it was soon found trying to impose an Islamist Constitution and its members were found to be indulging in attacks on Christians and other minorities. Leading Middle East expert Yasmine El Rashidi described this as an “Islamist Coup”. Soon Egypt’s powerful military had to intervene to save the country from plunging into utter chaos. All this happened because despite giving up violence and participating in the electoral process, the Muslim Brotherhood remained ideologically committed to the cause of establishing a theocratic Islamist State." Read Full Article Here

Mufti’s Uncommon Maximal Programme

Swarajya Mag (March 11, 2015)

"Technically, the issue of dialogue should not have formed part of the CMP text, as foreign policy is not a state subject, and it has been India’s well articulated longstanding position that all issues with Pakistan are to be sorted out bilaterally. The state government cannot have a say in our Pakistan policy. The BJP should have asked Mufti to be satisfied with the fact that talks are being reopened and forget about having it mentioned in the CMP. The very mention of the ‘P’ word in CMP allowed Mufti to give credit to that country’s role in offering a “conducive atmosphere” for polls." Read More

Counter terrorism lessons (South Asia Monitor: Jan 22, 2015)

A closer look into urban guerrilla tactics employed by Paris attackers, their jihadists past, comparisons with Lindt Cafe incident and much more. Read More

Islamic State arrives in Pakistan: Implications for South Asia (South Asia Monitor: Dec 14, 2014)

Article discusses Islamic State's alliances with groups like Jundullah (Pakistan), prospects of more jehadists swearing allegiance to Islamic State, challenges IS alliances pose on tactical level and evolving threat to India and Iran. Read full article here

Time Pakistan realised futility of proxy war (South Asia Monitor: Nov 16, 2014)

Article discusses in detail the shift in India's national security policy as articulated by new NSA Ajit Doval from "credible minimum deterrence" to "effective deterrence". Article discusses how the scope of new "effective deterrence" doctrine is not limited to "nuclear deterrence" alone and how it may play out in event of another low deniability quotient attack like 26/11. Read full article here

South Asian jihadist groups in re-alignment mode (South Asia Monitor: September 28, 2014)

South Asia is witnessing heightened activities by trans-national jihadist organizations which have the capability to affect the security environment in the Indian subcontinent. Article deals in detail with the planning behind the formation of Al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) and its role in the struggle within Pak Army. A quick look at Islamic State's South Asian franchisee as well as how groups like Indian Mujahedeen are reacting to these developments. Read full article here

IS' South Asia Affiliate releases statement in neat Hindi

Islamic State's South Asian Affiliate Ansar ul Tawhid (AuT) has released threat statements in English, Urdu and Hindi. Statements were released on group's twitter handle on the night of 18 -19 September whereby AuT vowed to avenge the death of IM terrorists in 2008 Batla House encounter in Delhi's Jamia Nagar locality.

The Hindi statement uses pure Hindi words with visible North Indian imprint.  In previous video messages released by the group, its Commander Abdur Rahman al- Hindi ( a pseudonym) may be heard talking in North Indian accent and accidentally using pure Hindi words in an otherwise Urdu speech.

This is the first statement released by this group after the announcement of Al-Qaeda's subcontinental branch by Zawahiri. But the statement does not mention anything about the announcement. But the group seems to be relatively more hawkish than before on local Indian issues like Batla House encounter.

In its previous messages group had laid more stress on call to join jihad in Syria and Iraq. In one previous message it had issued a veiled threat to Indian Security Agencies. But this time it is specific and blatant. With AQIS already launching terrorist strikes in Pakistan the group must have found itself lagging behind.

Recently, an AuT attempt to send youngsters to fight in Iraq and Syria was foiled by Indian Security Agencies.

Group seems to own the IM terrorists killed in Batla House encounter, confirming the suspicions that group is a break away faction of IM which has joined the Islamic State umbrella.

While releasing statement on Twitter, group  hash taged certain Agencies.

However, on  September 23 group noted the suspension of a jihadist forum it had been using for disseminating jehadi materials.