The Asian Tigers is an Afghan militant group, first publicised when they claimed credit for the kidnapping of former Pakistani intelligence officers Khalid Khawaja and Colonel Imam and British journalist Asad Qureshi and his driver Rustam Khan in March 2010. Khawaja was killed in April 2010. Qureshi and Khan were released in September 2010 after 165 days in captivity. Imam was killed in January 2011. [1]
The group is variously described as a breakoff of Lashkar-e Jhangvi [2] or a front group for the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami. [3] It is also affliliated with Jaish-e-Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan. [4]
Lashkar-e-Taiba is a Pakistan-based terrorist group, militant and Islamist Salafi jihadist organisation. Described as one of Pakistan's "most powerful jihadi groups", it is most infamous outside Pakistan. The organisation's primary stated objective is to merge the whole of Kashmir with Pakistan. It was founded in 1985–86 by Hafiz Saeed, Zafar Iqbal Shehbaz Abdullah Azzam and several other Islamist mujahideen with funding from Osama bin Laden during the Soviet–Afghan War. It has been designated a terrorist group by numerous countries.
Jaish-e-Mohammed is a Pakistan-based Deobandi Jihadist terrorist group active in Kashmir. The group's primary motive is to separate Kashmir from India and merge it into Pakistan.
Squadron Leader Khalid Khawaja was an officer of the Pakistan Air Force, and the Air Force's intelligence officer of the Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence agency. A former member of Special Service Wing (SSW) and a veteran of Soviet–Afghan War, Khawaja described himself as a close associate of Osama bin Laden in the early days of the Afghan resistance against the Soviet Union. He was once suspected of being involved in the murder of American reporter Daniel Pearl. This was later proved to be false, but he did connect Pearl with men who would eventually kill him.
Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami is a Pakistani Islamist extremist, fundamentalist and terrorist organisation affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
The insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, also known as the War in North-West Pakistan or Pakistan's war on terror, is an ongoing armed conflict involving Pakistan and Islamist militant groups such as the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Jundallah, Lashkar-e-Islam (LeI), TNSM, al-Qaeda, and their Central Asian allies such as the ISIL–Khorasan (ISIL), Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, East Turkistan Movement, Emirate of Caucasus, and elements of organized crime. Formerly a war, it is now a low-level insurgency as of 2017.
Lashkar-e-Islam, also written as Laskhar-i-Islam, is a Deobandi jihadist terrorist group operating in Khyber District, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan and the neighboring Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan.
The Pakistani Taliban, formally called the Tehreek-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan, is an umbrella organization of various Islamist armed militant groups operating along the Afghan–Pakistani border. Formed in 2007 by Baitullah Mehsud, its current leader is Noor Wali Mehsud, who has publicly pledged allegiance to the Afghan Taliban. The Pakistani Taliban share a common ideology with the Afghan Taliban and have assisted them in the 2001–2021 war, but the two groups have separate operation and command structures.
Pakistan and state-sponsored terrorism refers to the involvement of Pakistan in terrorism through the backing of various designated terrorist organizations. Pakistan has been frequently accused by various countries, including its neighbours Afghanistan, Iran, and India, as well as by the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France, of involvement in a variety of terrorist activities in both its local region of South Asia and beyond. Pakistan's northwestern tribal regions along the Afghanistan–Pakistan border have been described as an effective safe haven for terrorists by Western media and the United States Secretary of Defense, while India has accused Pakistan of perpetuating the insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir by providing financial support and armaments to militant groups, as well as by sending state-trained terrorists across the Line of Control and de jure India–Pakistan border to launch attacks in Indian-administered Kashmir and India proper, respectively. According to an analysis published by the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution in 2008, Pakistan was reportedly, "with the possible exception of Iran, perhaps the world's most active sponsor of terrorist groups... aiding these groups that pose a direct threat to the United States. Pakistan's active participation has caused thousands of deaths in the region; all these years Pakistan has been supportive to several terrorist groups despite several stern warnings from the international community." Daniel Byman, a professor and senior analyst of terrorism and security at the Center For Middle East Policy, also wrote that, "Pakistan is probably 2008's most active sponsor of terrorism". In 2018, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, suggested that the Pakistani government played a role in the 2008 Mumbai attacks that were carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based Islamist terrorist group. In July 2019, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, on an official visit to the United States, acknowledged the presence of some 30,000–40,000 armed terrorists operating on Pakistani soil. He further stated that previous administrations were hiding this truth, particularly from the United States, for the last 15 years during the War on Terror.
Brigadier Sultan Amir Tarar, best known as Colonel Imam, was a one-star rank army general in the Pakistan Army, and a former diplomat who served as the Consul-General of Pakistan at Herat, Afghanistan. He belonged to the Tarar Jatt Muslim family Amir Sultan Tarar was a Pakistan Army officer and special warfare operation specialist. He was a member of the SSG of the army, an intelligence officer of the ISI and served as Pakistani Consul General in Herat, Afghanistan. A veteran of the Soviet–Afghan War, he is widely believed to have played a key role in the formation of the Taliban, after having helped train the Afghan Mujahidin on behalf of the United States in the 1980s.
Operation Black Thunderstorm was a military operation that commenced on April 26, 2009, conducted by the Pakistan Army, with the aim of retaking Buner, Lower Dir, Swat and Shangla districts from the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan after the militants took control of them since the start of the year.
The Second Battle of Swat also known as Operation Rah-e-Rast, began in May 2009 and involved the Pakistan Army and Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan militants in a fight for control of the Swat district of Pakistan. The first Battle of Swat had ended with a peace agreement, that the government had signed with the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan in February 2009. However, by late April 2009 government troops and the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan began to clash once again, and in May the government launched a military offensive code-named Operation Black Thunderstorm throughout the Swat district and elsewhere to oppose the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan.
Hakimullah Mehsud, born Jamshed Mehsud and also known as Zulfiqar Mehsud, was a Pakistani militant who was the second emir of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, elected to the post on 22 August 2009. It was confirmed by TTP that he was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan on 1 November 2013.
The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, is a Deobandi supremacist, terrorist and militant organisation based in Afghanistan. The organisation operates in Pakistan and Afghanistan and is an offshoot of anti-Shia party Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP). The LeJ was founded by former SSP activists Riaz Basra, Malik Ishaq, Akram Lahori, and Ghulam Rasool Shah.
The February 2010 Kabul attack on 26 February 2010 was a combined suicide bombing and shooting attack. A car bomb levelled the Arya Guesthouse, also known as the Hamid Guesthouse, popular with Indian doctors. Two armed attackers then entered the nearby Park Residence, housing other foreigners. One detonated a suicide bomb, and the other was shot dead. The Safi Landmark Hotel nearby was badly damaged by the blasts. At least 18 people were killed and 36 more were injured.
The Operation Sirat-e-Mustaqeem , was a Pakistan Army operation in Bara Tehsil of Khyber Agency, Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The operation was commenced on June 28, 2008, and was halted by the Army on July 9, 2008, after liberating Bara Tehsil from the terrorist. On July 9, 2008 another operation, codenamed Zarbe-Kaleem, was launched in Hangu district.
Asad Qureshi is a British filmmaker who was kidnapped on 26 March 2010 by a militant group called the "Asian Tigers" in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghanistan border, where he was making a film in North Waziristan and interviewing Taliban leaders. Qureshi was accompanied by his driver, Rustam Khan, and two senior members of the Inter-Services Intelligence, Khalid Khawaja and Colonel Imam during his trip. All four were abducted; Khawaja was killed and his body was found a month later in Mir Ali with an attached note accusing him of spying for the United States and being responsible for killing people during the Siege of Lal Masjid. Qureshi and his driver were released in September 2010 through family negotiations after 165 days of captivity. Colonel Imam was executed in January 2011. Qureshi's release was a rare occurrence as the Pakistani Taliban have been known to execute most of their victims.
Human rights abuses in the province ofBalochistan refers to the human rights violations that are occurring in the ongoing insurgency in Balochistan. The situation has drawn concern from the international community, The human rights situation in Balochistan is credited to the long-running conflict between Baloch nationalists and Pakistani security forces.
The persecution of Hazaras in Quetta, is a series of ethnic or religious motivated attacks on Hazaras in Quetta, Pakistan.
Events in the year 2014 in Pakistan.
Abu ‘Umayr ‘Abd al-Hasib al-Logari or Abdul Haseeb Logari was a Pakistani Islamic militant who led the Islamic State – Khorasan Province from July 2016 until his death on 27 April 2017.