From 25 January 2016 to 5 February 2016, CAPS Head of Research Halimullah Kousary and Research Analyst Hekmatullah Azamy participated in a two-week comprehensive annual terrorism workshop organized by the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR) in S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore.

The participants of the training course were from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Brunei, United States, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Philippines, Kenya, The Maldives, Malaysia, Nigeria, Mauritania, Kurdistan Autonomous region of Iraq and Singapore. The workshop covered global and landscape of global and regional terrorism threat and states responses in this regard.

During the workshop, Halimullah Kousary presented on factions and schism within Taliban post Mullah Omar death highlighted the importance of a regionally unified approach address the growing menace of terrorism in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region.

Hekmatullah Azamy also delivered a presentation on current and emerging threat of Islamic State (ISIS) in Afghanistan-Pakistan region. Mr. Azamy started with a brief background of ISIS emergence and its activities in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He focused on ISIS relations with other national and transnational groups currently operating in and from Afghanistan. Mr. Azamy described ISIS as a serious threat to Afghanistan and the broader region. He argued that the group has the intention to turn Afghanistan into its regional headquarters and from there expand towards South and Central Asia.

Mr Kousary presenting on Taliban and schism.

Mr Azamy presenting on current and emerging threat of Islamic State (ISIS).

Group photo.