While the COVID-19 has devastated health, economy and social sectors across the world with the death of millions of people, its impact is mixed in the low-intensity conflict regions. In case of India, more than one lakh people have been affected (at the time of finalising this report), and more than three thousand people have succumbed to the pandemic despite a nationwide lockdown imposed since March 23.

Ever since the first Corona infected case was reported on February 23 in Sindh province of Pakistan and its spread to the other regions - Islamabad, Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), the authorities asked for army’s help to contain the spread of the virus. Instead of getting the virus directly from China, Pakistan got the infection when thousands of Pakistani pilgrims and businessmen returned from Iranian cities -- Mashhad and Qom, where the shrine of Imam Reza is located.

Seventeen security personnel including 12 from District Reserve Guard (DRG) and five from Special Task Force (STF) were killed by the CPI (Maoist) in Chintagufa in the Sukma district of Chhattisgarh on March 21, 2020 (Hindustan Times, March 22).

Nepal government’s decision to impose a ban on the Communist Party of Nepal led by Netra Bikram Chand alias Biplab, known as CPN (Chand), a renegade Maoist faction, completed one year on March 12, 2020. The decision was taken following a series of bomb attacks on Ncell (Telecommunication service provider) towers and other public places across the country on February 22, 2019.  The outfit had also made similar attacks on the Ncell infrastructure on June 11, 2016. In fact, before imposing the ban, the government had formed a negotiation team to hold dialogue with the CPN (Chand).

The growing incidents of radicalisation and religious extremism in a liberal Muslim country like the Maldives is alarming. It is a grave threat to the country as well as the South Asian region. Since the late 1970s, Maldives has seen growing trends of religious intolerance. Wahabi ideologies influenced many Maldivians in the subsequent years to fight for global Jihad. Today, the issue of radicalisation and violent extremism has emerged as a potential national security threat.

This is the second year, consecutively that Bangladesh has witnessed less than 50 violent incidents and terrorist-related fatalities. In a year-end assessment, the Anti-Terrorism Unit (ATU) of the Bangladesh police claimed that the year 2019 witnessed a lesser number of terrorist attacks due to a strong counter-insurgency policy. This policy focussed on counter-narratives, de-radicalization and awareness programmes to curb the militancy alongside regular activities like arrests and intelligence gathering on the terrorist groups in the post Holey Bakery incident in Dhaka in 2016.

To understand the genesis of the Naxal movement, also known as Maoist/Left-wing extremism, one needs to locate it within the framework of the Communist movement in India. More specifically, any study on the Maoist movement cannot overlook the importance of the rise and fall of the Telangana Movement (1946-51). Because for the Indian Communists, Telangana would always remain the glorious chapter in the history of peasant struggles.

As Sri Lanka is gearing towards the eighth presidential elections on November 16, national security, foreign policy and foreign investments in infrastructure projects and minority issues are once again dominating the political discourse in the country. Although a record 35 candidates have registered for this election, the electoral debate has been mostly dominated by the UNP candidate, Sajith Premadasa, and SLPP candidate, Gotabaya Rajapaksa (GR). The JVP and the NPM could be closer to these two parties.

After a decade long armed struggle and promulgation of a new constitution in September 2015 as per the November 2006 Comprehensive Peace Agreement between former Maoists and the then Nepal government, Nepal could witness the rise of another radical Maoist group. The Communist Party of Nepal led by Netra Bikram Chand alias Biplav (also known as CPN-Chand faction) was formed on 24^th November 2014 after breaking away from Mohan Baidya’s Communist Party of Nepal (Revolutionary).

On September 07 (2019) American President Donald Trump unilaterally announced withdrawal from the peace talks with the Taliban. This abruptly brought an end to the first-ever formal peace talks between the US and Taliban, which were going on for more than a year. However, the talks were taking place along with intense violence perpetrated by the Taliban forces although militant groups too witnessed heavy casualties on their side. Thousands of people were killed, including civilians and security forces, during the time of peace talks.