Amsterdam, August 17, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
The emergence of Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) as a decentralised terrorist network and the continued activities of Pakistan-based terror groups underline the need for closer scrutiny of their funding, recruitment and propaganda networks, according to an analysis by Junaid Qureshi, Director of the European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS).
The assessment follows the November 2025 Red Fort suicide car bombing, which killed 11 people. A United Nations Security Council (UNSC) terrorism monitoring team last week attributed the attack to AQIS and warned that the organisation was expanding its presence across South Asia.
The Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team on terrorism said the attack “was officially attributed to AQIS” and described the group as evolving from a fragmented network into a decentralised terrorist organisation.
Qureshi, writing in Rising Kashmir, argued that the limited but continuing successes of various terrorist groups could indicate logistical cooperation with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). He said the agency had historically adapted its support networks by shifting reliance between different militant organisations when international pressure increased.
“The ISI has mastered the art of creating new terrorist outfits which step into the shoes of other ISI-created terrorist groups operating in J&K once international pressure kicks in forcefully against the existing group,” Qureshi wrote.
He cited the changing prominence of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) as examples of this pattern.
AQIS was established in 2014 by Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. According to the UNSC monitoring report, the organisation has developed logistics and financial networks while operating through small, dispersed cells rather than large formations.
Qureshi said such decentralised operations could allow international terrorist organisations to pursue urban guerrilla-style tactics in countries such as India, where territorial or conventional warfare is not a viable strategy.
He warned that terrorist groups in South Asia were likely to increasingly rely on online radicalisation and recruitment rather than attempts to physically control territory. He also called for greater attention to madrassas that, according to his assessment, could be exploited by extremist groups for recruitment and ideological propagation.
The EFSAS director urged Indian security agencies to monitor not only established organisations such as LeT, HM and JeM but also the infrastructure and methods used by international terrorist groups, including madrassa networks, online platforms, propaganda mechanisms, funding channels and newer recruitment strategies.
He also warned that these networks could seek to exploit growing radicalisation among sections of young people in Jammu and Kashmir.
“The role of the ISI in strengthening such groups as part of a new strategy to keep violence alive in J&K in order to protect the pre-eminence of the Pakistani military establishment, especially, needs to be watched with a hawk’s eye and countered promptly and robustly,” Qureshi said.
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