Pakistan Terrorist Groups - Terrorist Outfits: An Overview (List of Terrorist Groups)
Of the various ideological streams that currently
inspire and provoke political violence and terrorism
in South Asia, the most destabilizing and lethal, and
the one with the greatest extra-regional impact, is
Islamist terrorism. A multiplicity of sub-sets and a
complex, sometimes conflicting scheme of inter-
linkages, has been documented in connection with
the extended range of Islamist terrorist groups
operating in the region.
Various shades of radical political Islam colour,
Various shades of radical political Islam colour,
indeed define, the Pakistani identity and nation, even as the country is positioned at
the heart of contemporary Islamist terrorism. Extremist Islam is, and has long been,
the state’s principal tool of internal political mobilisation and of external projection in
an extraordinary and audacious enterprise of strategic overextension. Crucially, the
footprint of almost every major act of international Islamist terrorism, for some time
before 9/11 and continuously thereafter, invariably passes through Pakistan. After
9/11, the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan, and the stark choice given to the Pakistani
leadership, the dynamics of the Islamist terrorist enterprise in South Asia have
undergone dramatic adaptive adjustments and modifications. Essentially, however,
this dynamic, its underlying ideologies, and its motivational and institutional
structures, remain intact.
There is strong and cumulative evidence that the Pakistani power elite, located in the
There is strong and cumulative evidence that the Pakistani power elite, located in the
regressive military-mullah-feudal combine, is yet to abandon terrorism as a tactical
and strategic tool to secure what it perceives as the country’s quest for ‘strategic
depth’ in the region. This remains the case despite the increasing ‘blowback’ of
Islamist terrorist violence within the country, and the progressive erosion of the
Army’s status and control in expanding areas of the country. While the Pakistani
Army has taken selective action against particular groups of Islamist terrorists –
particularly those who have turned against the state, who have attacked President
Musharraf and senior Army and Government functionaries, who have engaged in
sectarian terrorism within the country, or who are targeted specifically on behalf of,
and under pressure from, the US – it is the case that Pakistan continues to support
and encourage the activities of a wide range of terrorist and Islamist extremist
organisations. This is particularly the case with organisations that are active in
Afghanistan – including remnants of the Taliban – and in India.
Despite cosmetic policy changes and some tokenism – including formal bans on a
Despite cosmetic policy changes and some tokenism – including formal bans on a
