Pakistan has recently faced a renewed ethno-separatist militant surge targeting its financial and energy infrastructure. Four recent attacks indicate a resurgence within the multiple secessionist groups fighting for Baluchistan independence.
Following the death of al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent’s (AQIS) founding leader Asim Umar and several of his associates in September 2019 in Afghanistan, it was believed that the youngest franchise of the international terrorist organization would be in disarray. However, the jihadist franchise seems to have grown in strength, at least in its virtual jihad and dawa (proselytizing) campaigns. In the months following Umar’s death, the long-serving scholar spokesman, Ustadh Usama Mahmoud (a.k.a. Osama Mahmood), has risen to prominence in AQIS.
ABSTRACT: The Coronavirus pandemic has exposed myriad vulnerabilities of the modern world, severely questioning the so-called human progress in the sphere of scientific innovations and advances in the global health care system. It has also exposed the socio-religious divide and defiance within communities and lack of collective responsibilities in the face of this Covid-19 challenge.
The May 2025 India-Pakistan conflict offered a sobering demonstration of how modern wars are no longer confined to physical battlefields alone. Alongside precision strikes and conventional military operations, both countries engaged in a fierce struggle for control over public perception, media narratives, and psychological advantage.
It has been one month since the brutal Islamist terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir (April 22, 2025), where civilians were deliberately targeted and killed after being asked their religion — a cold-blooded and calculated act of violence. The incident stands as yet another grim reminder of the enduring and well-orchestrated threat posed by Pakistan-based Islamist terror networks.