India – A Jihad group has released a 10-minute video that calls on key fundamental Islamic leaders to attacks Indian targets worldwide in retaliation for the alleged atrocities committed against Muslims in India. According to a translation provided by the Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor of the Washington DC-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), the jihad group goes by the name of Ansar Al-Tawheed fi Bilad Al-Hind (The Supporters of Monotheism in the Land of India). It quotes its leader, Abd Al-Rahman, as appealing in Arabic to Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad; Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri; the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, and Al-Qaeda's leaders in Yemen (Nasser Al-Wuhaishi), in Somalia (Mukhtar Abu Al-Zubair), and in North Africa (Abu Mus'ab 'Abd Al-Wudoud), to come forward to protect the Muslims of India. In the video, Abd Al-Rahman describes Hindus as "hateful", and accuses them of perpetrating crimes like expulsion, imprisonment, rape and killing, and other insults, on Muslims. MEMRI further quotes Abd Al-Rahman as mentioning the Kashmir dispute and the 2002 massacre of Muslims in Gujarat in the video. Abd Al-Rahman maintains that Muslims of India are suffering today under the occupation of Hindus. The video concludes with Abd Al-Rahman seeking the support and advice of these Islamic leaders to attack Indian Government interests and its economic centres in India or abroad until the government collapses.
India/Afghanistan – The Indian Mujaheedin (IM) is slowly making a move from Azamgarh to Afghanistan to join the ranks of Taliban and get special training it was reported on the 24 May 14. The Afghanistan-Pakistan border has become home for a new module of the IM, sources in the intelligence agencies said. Sources in the agency said that IM members Dr Shahnawaz and Sajid Bada of the Azamgarh module ran away after the Batla House encounter in 2008 and are now in Afghanistan. The Special Cell of the Delhi Police recently found a video footage released by a wing of Taliban called Ansar-ul-Tauheed (AuT), in which operatives can be seen training with weapons. The AuT wing mainly comprises terrorists from the Rajasthan and Azamgarh module. The video was seized from laptops of Rajasthan module terrorists who were arrested on the 23 Mar 14. "In the AuT video footage, the terrorists have been named 'Lions of India'." A few months back during an investigation after IM's Rajasthan module was broken up, it came to fore that arrested IM operatives were planning to leave India for Afghanistan. Intelligence agency sources also stated that there is a strong possibility that terror groups IM and SIMI are being backed by the Taliban for a planned attack on Modi, and are, thus, running training camps on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. On 23 Mar 14 the Delhi Police claimed to have foiled a major terror plot by arresting top IM terrorist Zia-ur-Rahman, alias Waqas, a Pakistani national wanted in connection with several bombings. It was revealed that Waqas was instructed by Pakistan's ISI to plan and execute terror attacks during political rallies in India.
Pakistan – Pakistani fighter planes bombed suspected 'Taliban hideouts' in the tribal region of North Waziristan, killing at least 32 people it was reported by the military on the 21 May 14. "Confirmed militant hideouts were targeted early morning today in North Waziristan through precise aerial strikes," a senior military official stated on the 21 May 14. "There are reports of 32 terrorists killed in strikes including some important commanders." The names were not reported at the time of writing. The air strikes were confirmed and the strikes were carried out in Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan, and the Mir Ali, Datta Khel and Ghulam Khan areas. The aerial strikes come three days after the Pakistan Taliban chief Mullah Fazlullah released a video in which he vowed that his group's fight would continue until either the imposition of Islamic law across Pakistan, or the martyrdom of its fighters. In the video released on the 18 May 14, Fazlullah called upon his group's suicide bombers and fighters to prepare themselves to take on the army. The latest attack comes weeks after the Pakistani Taliban formally ended a ceasefire called to promote talks with the government aimed at ending a seven-year insurgency. The attack will have taken the Taliban by surprise and there will no doubt be reprisals later.
Pakistani Taliban on the 28 May 14 suffered a major setback after a powerful faction split from it citing the umbrella organisation's involvement in criminal activities and bombing of public places, complicating the already-fragile peace dialogue with the government. The 'Khan Sajna' group has parted ways from the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) led by Maulana Fazlullah due to its involvement in criminal activities and policy of bombing public places, Azam Tariq, former TTP spokesman and a member of its powerful shura (council), said. "We announce our defection from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, we have chosen our Khalid Mehsud as the new leader for South Waziristan," Tariq said. "The TTP leadership has fallen into the hands of a bunch of conspirators, the umbrella organisation is involved in criminal activities like robbery and extortion," he said in a statement. The break-away faction belongs to the Mehsud tribe, considered to be one of the most important and powerful of the various groups that comprise the TTP. Tariq said there were differences within the rebels over the issue of peace talks with the government, which are currently stalled. He said the TTP needs reforms.