In a development that pleased India and perplexed Pakistan, the People’s Republic of China finally lifted ‘hold’ on the request made by the US, the UK and France on a revised resolution to include Masood Azhar in the Terror List before the United Nations Security Council ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee (hereafter referred to as UNSC Resolution 1267) on May 1, 2019.
It is increasingly evident that each time the relations between India and Pakistan improve, India-focused jihadist groups from across the Pakistani border attempt to disrupt it with attacks in the Indian states of Kashmir, Punjab, and elsewhere. The inevitable aim of these is to upset the possibility of amicable dialogue between these two populous and nuclear-armed nations.
Afghanistan struggles for stability in the face of a splintered Taliban and a growing Islamic StateAUTHOR: Animesh Roul
"The emergence of the Islamic State caliphate and the possibility of a Khurasan chapter once again fanned Saeed Khan’s ambitions to become a high-level militant leader in the region. The much-expected shift of allegiance came last October, when Saeed Khan along with other TTP regional commanders such as Sheikh Umar Maqbool, Gul Zaman of Khyber Agency, Mufti Hassan of Peshawar, Hafiz Quran Daulat of Kurram, and Khalid Mansoor of Hangu pledged allegiance the Islamic State (Dawn [Karachi], October 14, 2014).
Amid a series of government denials from Pakistan and Afghanistan regarding the presence of the Islamic State militant group in these countries and its ongoing outreach activities there, its expansion was corroborated by none other than the Islamic State’s spokesperson, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, on January 26, 2015 (The Nation [Lahore] September 5, 2014; Dawn [Karachi], November 11, 2014;