south-asian-militant-groups-and-global-jihad-in-2015

NEW AG EN T S OF GLOB AL JIHAD
jihadist organizations. An attempt to present a group as a static,
and easily quantifiable, security threat, would be misleading.
Our aim is to give accurate portraits of the most significant
militancy’s in these nations, and assess the regional significance of
“global jihad”, rather than make a theoretical or a comparative
argument. This report is principally a product of qualitative
research: groups profiled are identified as most dangerous via a
methodology of cross-checks, qualitative indicators, and
assessments of groups.
An overview of the size, structure, and influence of the major Islamist
terrorist organisations that are currently operating in J&K, Pakistan,
Afghanistan and India will be offered below. Prominent attacks and the
relationships between the relevant terrorist groups will be commented
upon.
This section will provide the reader with a broad understanding of the
operations and nature of the various terrorist groups that operate within this
region, and it will provide a contextual base for the proceeding discussions
on both IS as a destabilising force in South Asia, and policy recommendations
to combat Islamist extremism. This section is a brief summary of our longer
report that can be referenced for further detail and analysis on each terrorist
group mentioned forthwith.
Given that the majority of South Asian countries have experienced some
degree of jihadist violence in recent years, our focus on Pakistan, Afghanistan
and India should certainly not be read as an exhaustive survey of the
continent. Originally, we intended to focus on Pakistani groups alone, but we
recognised that an attempt to explain the encroachment of global jihadist
ideologies into Pakistan without examining India or Afghanistan would be
futile. The inter-connected borders of these nations form the political nervecentre
of the region; arguably, this has been the case since the partition of
India in 1947, and it will continue to be so long after the withdrawal of
international forces from Afghanistan. However, in spite of their
overwhelming influence within the region, excluding some of the
surrounding countries from our analysis was somewhat problematic. For
example, we predict that Bangladesh will be a potential “hotspot” for
radicalization in the immediate future; and as is evinced by the fact that some
militant Pakistani outfits targeting India prefer to enter India through the
poorly guarded Bangladeshi border, its logistical significance to groups in
Pakistan and India should not be overlooked 5 . Furthermore, Al Qaeda has
named Bangladesh as a country whose Muslims would be ideologically
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