A video released last year by the media wing of Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP), Islami Awazi (Voice of Islam), Abuzar al-Burmi, flanked by a German and a Chinese militant, called on the 'mujahideen' to shift their focus on Chinese interests after the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan in 2014. The kidnapping of a Chinese tourist from Dera Ismail Khan on May 19 this year is probably part of that strategy. Abdullah Mansoor, the current leader of East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) ¶ popularly known as TIP in Waziristan ¶ claims the separatist Uyghur Chinese Muslims settled in Pakistan tribal areas number between 1,000-1,200, a claim hard to verify independently. Mansoor had assumed the leadership of the TIP after a drone strike in 2012 took out his predecessor Abdullah Masoom. Mansoor also claims that the Chinese group enjoys full support of al-Qaeda and the TTP most powerful Mehsud faction controlled by Khalid Mehsud alias Khan Said (Sajna). While many of the TIP activists have moved to the mountainous Shawwal and adjoining areas of North Waziristan, the top leadership ¶ sources familiar with Waziristan militancy ¶ believe that the top-tier ETIM leadership still operates out of its bases somewhere in South Waziristan, including their training camps located somewhere in Sararogha, Laddha, and Bobar. Those who have met Abdullah Mansoor recently report that the number of Uyghur Chinese being quoted by the leader include women and children ¶ mostly the families of the males who moved to Pakistan. These family members undergo the same rigorous training in the camps as do the male members. The group has recently released a video clip in which small children are seen firing and are receiving training with the help of al-Qaeda members in the respective region. Overflowing with the zeal for an independent Turkestan (Xinjiang), these militants are reportedly ready to do anything that would draw them closer to their goal. And for this, hurting Chinese interests...

  The optics in New Delhi were fantastic. Nawaz Sharif maiden meeting with Narendra Modi drew worldwide attention. Cameras, microphones and eyes were fixed on their body language too, particularly when Modi vehemently shook Sharif hand ahead of his swearing in ceremony. But the string of news coming through the media after their 50-minute bilateral meeting took the gloss off the media spectacle and made everybody realize that the real test lies in semantics, ie how does the leadership translate vows of friendship and cooperation in demonstrable actions. They are crucial to building on the widespread goodwill that summit meetings generate. Very naturally, a big question arising out of the Modi-Sharif meeting is how and whether it will impact the civil-military relations in Pakistan. Symbolism and the usual euphoria accompanying such meetings apart, both leaders face tough days and months ahead ´ as an avowed pracharak of RSS, Modi must prove to his core vote bank that he would not relent in dealing with Pakistan. And Sharif on his part must convince the Indian leadership that Pakistan in 2014 is a different ballgame, where the civil-military leadership now looks eye-to-eye on relations with India and that they want to move on a for a better and peaceful future for the people of both countries. But skepticism still abounds as to whether the Pakistani military is really on board as far as relations with India are concerned. This curious concern kept resonating in debates among Indian commentators and in questioning by TV anchors. In several interactions with Indian TV channels in the past few days, we often confronted these questions, with an implied message that since much of the trouble between the two countries stems from the Kashmir dispute and the way the Pakistani military has spearheaded it since late 1980s, should one assume that the military establishment is happily giving up that mission for good? Indian commentators and anchors also kept pointing to...

In an abrupt, though unsurprising move, a major Mehsud faction of the vicious militant group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) announced its Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) separation from the TTP umbrella group, stating severe policy differences with the core. This not only exposed divisions within the group but also delivered a severe blow to its organizational capacity as an outfit that has spearheaded hundreds of suicide bombings since its creation some seven years ago, and claimed responsibility for killings of civilians and for thousands of deadly ambushes of military convoys. The split also practically terminates the hyped up talks that the government had pursued since early this year. Announcement Azam Tariq, who was also a part of the Taliban shura,made the announcement during a press conference he gave Wednesday morning at an undisclosed location. A former spokesperson of the group, Tariq said that the Mehsud group ´ under the leadership of Ameer Khalid Mehsud ´ had decided to break away from the TTP. [1] Unhappy with the central leadership of TTP, Tariq claimed that the decision to split was taken after careful consideration. Tariq claimed that TTP have fallen in the hands of conspirators and been involved in burglaries and extortion, in an indirect reference to the Shahryar Mehsud, successor to former TTP chief Hakimullah Mehsud killed in a US drone strike in November last year.[2] 'We tried our best to stay united but failed,' he said, adding that the central leadership was being controlled by hidden forces. Vowing to stop oppressors from doing wrong, Tariq said his group will call a meeting and decide their future course of action. Analysis What led to the split? This can be attributed to several factos. Firstly,the split within TTP has been in the making ever since Maulana Fazlullah ´ a non-Mehsud militant - succeeded Hakimullah Mehsud as the TTP chief soon after Mehsud elimination in a drone attack in November 2013. This power struggle also meant...

Narendera Modi phenomenal success nearly stunned almost all political pundits even including his rivals such as Lalu Prasad Yadev and Deve Gowda ´ who vowed to change their names or leave Karnataka if Modi won. This has also prompted alarmists in Pakistan to warn of political polarization in India. They are also forecasting difficult times ahead for the non-BJP segments of the society. Right-wing radicals in Pakistan even jumped to the conclusion that Modi election as prime minister amounted to an affirmation of the two-nation theory. Outsiders also look at Modi success as a rebuff to those who had expected India to shake off the traditional socio-political structures such as the cast system and communalism in order to conform to a western ideal of liberal democracy and capitalism. 'For more than two decades that possibility has faced a pincer movement: a form of global capitalism that can only enrich a small minority and a xenophobic nationalism that handily identifies fresh scapegoats for large-scale socio-economic failure and frustration,' wrote the Guardian Pankaj Mishra. Many also believe Modi would treat Pakistan as his preferred 'scarecrow' to consolidate his hold on power. They peddle the argument that Modi would need a 'bad guy next door' to whip up a nationalistic frenzy and stoke tensions beyond those triggered by Kargil conflict in 1999 and the Mumbai 2007 attacks. Underlying this discourse is the presumption that Modi would continue acting like a regional chief minister. His landslide victory has also prompted analysts to ask whether with the rise of a Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi to the topmost slot, the world largest democracy is entering its most sinister period since independence (The Guardian, May 16), when nobody would have imagined such a victory for a person who is a lifelong member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), 'a paramilitary Hindu nationalist organisation inspired by the fascist movements of Europe, whose founder belief that...