No Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)-linked fatality was recorded through 2021. A single LTTE-linked fatality was recorded on July 8, 2020, when a former LTTE ‘intelligence agent,’ Thangarasa Thevanesan (43), sustained burn injuries when a crude bomb exploded accidentally in his house located at the Puliyadi Junction in Kilinochchi District of Northern Province on July 3, and later succumbed […]

On February 9, 2022, a 20-year-old youth, identified as Pranayaranjan Kanhar, was killed when he accidently stepped on an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), reportedly planted by Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) cadres at Kiamunda village under Phiringia Police Station limits in the Kandhamal District. On February 8, 2022, Maoists set ablaze two construction vehicles near the Kiamunda village in Kandhamal […]

For India, 2021 was a year of trauma and portent. Alongside the continuing COVID-19 crisis — despite an ostensibly successful vaccination drive — the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) anti-democratic tendencies intensified. A year-long protest by farmers eventually resulted in the government withdrawing a landmark bill to liberalise agricultural trade. State elections heralded the strength of regional parties. Yet despite […]

As the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan grows increasingly dire, Pakistan has informed India that it will allow the transportation of wheat and life-saving medicines from India to Afghanistan through its territory, on the condition that only Afghan trucks are used to carry it. The Taliban regime has praised Pakistan for the move, but will it arrest the decline in India’s […]

The concept of human security encompasses people-centric policies to protect individuals from insecurity that could pose threats to their survival and dignity. Traditional security systems support that protection and state institutions are responsible for enabling conditions for growth and development in a society. Building human agency and capital requires institutions to develop and implement people-centric policies, which are supported by […]

With the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the rapid victory of the Taliban, some observers have pronounced the commencement of a new Chinese-led regional order. China, they say, will sweep in and develop road and rail infrastructure to extract Afghanistan’s vast mineral and rare earth wealth and thereby emerge as the ultimate winner of America’s longest war. Such projections belie […]

With the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the rapid victory of the Taliban, some observers have pronounced the commencement of a new Chinese-led regional order. China, they say, will sweep in and develop road and rail infrastructure to extract Afghanistan’s vast mineral and rare earth wealth and thereby emerge as the ultimate winner of America’s longest war. Such projections belie […]

The Afghan Taliban could bite the Pakistan hand that had fed it Marvin G. WeinbaumDirector, Afghanistan and Pakistan Studies The smashing Taliban victory was greeted with satisfaction if not celebration by a great many in Pakistan. Prime Minister Imran Khan undiplomatically and provocatively asserted that the insurgents had “broken the shackles of slavery.” The U.S. was seen as having finally […]

For years, the world tried to soften the Taliban’s extremist ideology by exposing them to modernity. As an insurgency they learned diplomacy and negotiation tactics, but their medieval thinking remained just as rigid. Now that the Taliban rule over Afghanistan, the international community continues to appease them, assuming it can convince them to form an inclusive government and ease their […]

The 20-year-old Afghan republic comes to a crashing end Marvin G. WeinbaumDirector, Afghanistan and Pakistan Studies After two years of failed diplomatic efforts, for a time it seemed there might be an agreement with the Taliban reached by the Ghani regime and its international backers, albeit one very different than a long-sought power-sharing arrangement. With Taliban forces bearing down on […]