On October 8, 2025, Maulana Masood Azhar—leader of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) in Pakistan and a UN-designated terrorist—announced the creation of a women’s wing called Jamaat-ul-Muminat (JuM), or “Organization of Female Believers.” The announcement was made from the group’s headquarters at Masjid Usman-o-Ali in Bahawalpur, Pakistan.
Since its inception in 1901, the Nobel Peace Prize has primarily recognised contributions to four broad areas: arms control and disarmament, peace negotiations, the advancement of democracy and human rights, and efforts to build a more orderly and peaceful international system. In the 21st century, the Nobel Committee has also expanded its scope to include initiatives addressing climate change and environmental threats, viewing them as integral to global peace and stability.
I grew up in Guwahati (Assam), where questions of identity were never theoretical. They surfaced in school registers, land records, police verifications, and anxious family conversations. Some people carried documents with them like talismans. Others lived in fear that a single missing paper could erase their place in the only country they had ever known. Long before I understood the politics of migration, I witnessed its emotional cost.
Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif’s remarks during a live news interview, that his country has been doing “dirty work” for the West for the last three decades, was a stunning admission on Islamabad’s long history of supporting, training and funding terrorist organisations. A decade ago, former army chief and president General Pervez Musharraf made a similar confession on public television, bragging about Pakistan’s role in supporting and training militant groups in Kashmir’s freedom struggle.
"For the Taliban in Afghanistan, it is all about territory and Islamic Sharia."Vicky Nanjappa OneIndia, July 21, 2021