Profile of Kanchan Lakshman
Little in the evolving scenario suggests that Pakistan’s hurtle into chaos will be halted by the trajectory of current developments in Waziristan.
This is the second terrorist attack on the Indian mission in 15 months, and the fourth attack in the embattled Afghan capital, Kabul, since August 2009 - and it won't be the last...
Seven years after its inception, the Madrassa Reform Project has been an unambiguous failure. The state lacks both the will and the capacity to dismantle this radical network.
Pakistan may have "categorically rejected" the NYT of illegally modifying the Harpoon missile and P-3C aircraft for potential use against India, insecurity regarding its nuclear arsenal and use of American aid for jihad persists
Within weeks of Nek Muhammad’s death, Baitullah Mehsud had emerged as the principal ‘commander’ for Taliban. The TTP remains intactIt will survive Baitullah Mehsud’s death.
Whether or not we de-link terror from dialogue, there is ominous intelligence of LeT and other Pak-based groups planning next big-ticket terrorist attacks in India.
The battle between against the Taliban has intensified and is clearly widening across Pakistan. According to official data, 1,400 'militants' have been killed so far in a military offensive that commenced on April 26, 2009, even as the conflict has l
The ongoing military operations against the Taliban have invited a predictable backlash from the militant network. But, to be effective, the Taliban-Al Qaeda combine will have to be targeted not only in the Malakand division of NWFP but also in the w
The 'peace deal' in Swat will produce not more than a brief lull before a rising storm, even as Islamabad's manifest weakness is exploited in new theatres across the country, creating expanding spaces for extreme violence.
Diminished violence does not indicate a necessary decline in the capacity for terrorism, and there are clear indications that the infrastructure that supports and sustains the Kashmir jihad remains intact in Pakistan...
It is now the nerve centre for military operations targeting the Taliban- al Qaeda combine. It would have its impact not only on how Pakistan prosecutes its campaign against terrorism and on the trajectory of conflict in neighbouring Afghanistan, but
The collapse of Pakistan's five-month old coalition on August 25, 2008, a week after General (Retired) Pervez Musharraf resigned as the President, has not only enlarged the political vacuum in Islamabad but has also aggravated the multiple insurgenci
In the absence of a national policy on combating the multiple insurgencies afflicting Pakistan, a currently clueless provincial government has little chance of success in its efforts to end the NWFP's "descent into chaos".
By shifting the theatres of violence from J&K to elsewhere, Pakistan looks for greater 'deniability', while furthering the communal divide, but it not a radical departure or even as a nuanced reorientation of the ISI/jihadi agenda
Despite selective military operations in the FATA and NWFP, there is no indication that Pakistan has any intentions to cut the Taliban's lifeline on its soil.
The peace processes with the Taliban, initiated by Islamabad, is now rapidly unraveling, under belated pressure from USA and Afghanisan as massive operations are initiated by Pakistan Army in the Bara area of the Khyber tribal region
While the militants seek to reverse President Musharraf's "reluctant rupture with his one-time jihadist allies," J&K and the Indian hinterland could witness a significant resurgence of terrorist violence in the foreseeable future.
Balochistan, which has long remained on the periphery of Pakistan's projects and perceptions, is one of the theatres of conflict where "dialogue with those who are up in the mountains" is presently unraveling.
Pakistan's new government has clearly begun on a disastrous note by caving into the demands of the Taliban, to engineer an unequivocal retreat for the state -- the fourth such 'non-military' attempt since military operations commenced in July 2002
Pakistan's covert assistance to the Taliban in Afghanistan, and its efforts to recover 'strategic depth' in that country through this proxy, will inevitably continue, though its scale may be calibrated to ensure that it does not provoke US ire and re
Terrorist violence was down in J&K in 2007 but it was paralleled by a shift in the Pak-backed Islamist terrorists' focus to the heartland from Varanasi, Lucknow and Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh, Ajmer in Rajasthan, Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh and Panipa
Though violence levels are down -- as the terrorist focus shifts to the Indian heartland -- and there is a perceptible improvement in normal life patterns in the state, there is no compelling rationale for a lowering of guard.
It is a reflection of the crisis that afflicts Pakistan. While the march of radical Islam has been rapid and relatively unopposed, despite claims to the contrary, submissiveness and compliance has marked the character of the Pakistani state's respons
Musharraf's "combination of incompetence and brutality" has little capacity to restore order in the NWFP--or, indeed, in the widening sphere of chaos that is all of Pakistan.
It is ironical that the very radical forces that Musharraf and Benazir spawned could now be the greatest threats to their very survival, while Pakistan continues to remain the "epicentre of global instability".