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Zainab Akhter

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Dr Zainab Akhter has a PhD from the Centre for International Politics,  Organization, and Disarmament (CIPOD), School of International Studies,  Jawaharlal Nehru University. She also has an MPhil from the same university as  well as a post graduate degree in Mass Communication and Journalism from the  University of Kashmir. Zainab was earlier a Research Officer with the Institute  of Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS), and has also worked with the Indian  Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) as a Research Associate and at India  Institute as a researcher. She has interned with the Hindustan Times and has  been awarded the Ladakh Women Writers Award for the year 2008 by Charkha, a  Delhi-based NGO. She was selected for the India-Pakistan Legislative Fellowship  2017 by the US Government and was placed as the India Legislative Fellow at  Hudson Institute, a think tank based in Washington DC.

Her areas of research interest are Soft Power, Cultural Diplomacy,  India-Pakistan relations, CBMs, people-to-people diplomacy, Jammu and Kashmir  (with special focus on Ladakh). She has extensively travelled in Pakistan and  Baltistan. She is part of the Editorial Team for the  Journal of International Association of Ladakh Studies, a  member of the International Association of Ladakh Studies (IALS), Communities  without Boundaries International, an international nongovernment organization  that works to build peace and Women’s Regional Network, a network of women  civil society leaders working together to advance women’s rights and regional  peace in South Asia. She has presented papers in various national  and international conferences and has published research papers and articles in  journals, websites and newspapers on strategic issues related to Pakistan,  India-Pakistan relations, Gilgit-Baltistan, Kashmir and Ladakh.

Her journal articles include: “India-Pakistan Relations: Efficacy of  Culture,” Millennial Asia:  An International Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2016;”Indo-Pak  Diplomacy: Modi’s Pakistan Policy,” Mainstream,  Vol. 54, No. 9, 2016; “The Strategic Importance of the Siachen Glacier for India,” Indian Defence Review,  February 2016.

She has also reviewed a book titled Conflict in Jammu & Kashmir: Impact on Polity, Society,  and Economy, which was published in Book Review, Vol. 36, No. 9,  2012. Her latest publications are In Pakistan” Tryst with Democracy  Shadow of Military looms large, published in Daily O, 18 August  2018 and Pakistan  and the Politics of CPEC: A Rethink on the Anvil, published in South Asian Voices (SAV), 21 October 2018.

  • Research Analyst
  • Email:zainab9059[at]gmail[dot]com
  • Phone: +91 11 2671 7983

Publication

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Pakistan Cracking Down On Voices Of Dissent

Research Associate under the Pakistan News Digest Project, IDSA, Dr. Zainab Akhter’s article on Pakistan, titled ‘Pakistan Cracking Down on Voices of Dissent’ has been published by All India Radio (AIR) World Service, an external services division of AIR, on June 20, 2019.

Pakistan is in the midst of a political upheaval; as the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) government is tightening the noose over anti-government voices. From silencing the opposition by arresting their leaders, and cracking down on groups such as the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), the Imran Khan led government is strategically silencing dissent, writes Dr. Akhter.

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  • Published: 20 June, 2019

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Persecution Of Minorities In Pakistan Continues

Research Associate under the Pakistan News Digest Project, IDSA, Dr. Zainab Akhter’s article on minorities in Pakistan, titled ‘Persecution of Minorities in Pakistan Continues’ was published by All India Radio (AIR) World Service, an external services division of AIR, on May 29, 2019.

The Pakistani minorities are facing the wrath of the country’s discriminatory policy at the hands of the government as well as prejudice and victimization at the hand of people at large, especially the right-wing extremists, writes Dr Akhter.

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  • Published: 29 May, 2019

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The Data Darbar Suicide Attack

Research Associate under the Pakistan News Digest Project, IDSA, Dr. Zainab Akhter’s article on the attack on famous Sufi shrine Data Darbar in Lahore, titled ‘The Data Darbar Suicide Attack’ has been published by All India Radio (AIR) World Service, an external services division of AIR, on May 10, 2019.

The attack is a strong reminder to the Pakistan government that the extremist groups have the means to make a comeback and are yet not finished. At a time when Masood Azhar has been finally designated as a global terrorist, with Pakistan shutting down terror-related organizations in a bid not to graduate to the ‘blacklist’ of Financial Action Task Force (FATF); the attack on the Shrine should serve as a wakeup call to Islamabad that it urgently needs to put its house in order before it’s too late, writes Dr. Akhter.

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  • Published: 10 May, 2019

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Elections in Ladakh: Internal fault lines

Research Associate under the Pakistan News Digest Project, IDSA, Dr. Zainab Akhter’s article on Lok Sabha elections in Ladakh, titled ‘Elections in Ladakh: Internal fault lines’ has been published in the opinion section of ‘Rising Kashmir’ on May 05, 2019.

In Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, Ladakh is the largest Lok Sabha constituency area wise and is divided into four broader constituencies, Leh, Nubra, Kargil and Zanskar. The politics in the region is complicated due to internal fault-lines and underneath simmering communal tension between Kargil and Leh, writes Dr. Akhter.

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  • Published: 5 May, 2019

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The Plight Of Hazaras In Pakistan

Research Associate under the Pakistan News Digest Project, IDSA, Dr Zainab Akhter’s article on the Hazara community in Pakistan, titled ‘The Plight Of Hazaras In Pakistan’ was published by the All India Radio (AIR) World Service, an external services division of AIR, on April 17, 2019.

The article analyses the state of minorities in Pakistan, especially the targeted killing and systematic execution of the Hazaras. The increasing attacks on the Hazaras have raised questions about the nature of such crime against minorities in Pakistan. Some label the violence as a spill-over of the Sunni Shia sectarian violence, while others label it as a systematic targeting of the Hazara community.

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  • Published: 17 April, 2019

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The India-Pakistan conundrum: Sending the wrong signals

Research Associate under the Pakistan News Digest Project, IDSA, Dr Zainab Akhter’s article on Indo-Pak relations post Pulwama attack, titled ‘The India-Pakistan conundrum: Sending the wrong signals’ was published by the Asia Dialogue Journal, an online Journal of the University of Nottingham, Asia Research Institute.

Analysing whether Pulwama has sent India-Pakistan relations into an uncertain quagmire and if the mixed signals will push the relationship further towards uncertainty and chaos, Dr Akhter insists that it is high time that both the countries started to send the right signals.

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  • Published: 29 March, 2019

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FATF Tightens Scrutiny On Pakistan

Research Analyst, under the Pakistan News Digest Project, IDSA, Dr Zainab Akhter’s article on FATF and Pakistan, titled 'FATF Tightens Scrutiny On Pakistan' was published by The AIR World Service, an external serviced division of All India Radio (AIR), on March 07, 2109.

Pakistan has to demonstrate to the FATF advisory that measure is taken to shut down infrastructure and finances of terror groups in word and spirit, not just as a delaying tactic, lest it would surely be blacklisted in FATF next review meeting, writes Dr Akhter.

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  • Published: 7 March, 2019

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Islamism and intelligence in South Asia: militancy, politics and security

State sponsorship of terrorism is a complex and often ignored subject in contemporary security studies discourses. As stated by the British military historian Adrian Weale and noted in the foreword of Islamism and Intelligence in South Asia, ‘[i]nternational terrorism rarely happens without a state sponsor, directly or indirectly’ (p. x). Covert and overt support to terrorist groups to fulfil the state’s interest was a feature of international terrorism in the 1960s and 1970s.

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Pakistan’s Strategy Post Pulwama Published by All India Radio

Research Associate, under the Pakistan News Digest Project, IDSA, Dr Zainab Akhter’s article, titled ‘Pakistan’s Strategy Post Pulwama’ was published by the All India Radio (AIR) World Service, an external services division of AIR on March 01, 2019.

Post the Pulwama attacks under international pressure Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan directed the concerned organizations to ante up action against the extremist outfits in the country. As a result, the religious seminaries related to JeM were taken under government control. At this mere eyes wash, India launched a scathing pre-emptive air attack and targeted the JeM terror camps in Balakot, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Amid escalation between the two nations, the reaction of Pakistan needs to be accounted for, analyses the article.

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  • Published: 1 March, 2019

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