IS Threat in South Asia a Growing Reality

New Straits Times

25 August 2016

Abdul Basit

THE recent spate of high-profile terrorist attacks in Dhaka, Kabul and Quetta, together with the “migration” of radicalised youth from India and Maldives to Iraq and Syria, has highlighted the growing footprint of the Islamic State (IS) in South Asia.

Contrary to the views of policymakers and the strategic community in the region, which tended to dismiss the threat posed by the terrorist group as media hype, the level of planning, sophistication, and coordination exhibited by these attacks indicates the growing presence of IS in the region.

In less than two years, the network of IS supporters and sympathisers in South Asia has evolved from a potential security risk to a tangible threat, reflecting the traction of its ideology among disaffected and radicalised youth across the subcontinent.

The growing IS influence, the spread of its ideology, and the nature of its presence in South Asia warrants a deeper examination of the phenomenon, its enabling factors and structural causes of its growth.

… The writer is an Associate Research Fellow at the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

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