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Social media have come to play a vital role not only in our everyday lives, but also in times of conflict and crisis such as natural disasters or civil wars. Recent research has highlighted, on the one hand, the use of social media as a means of recruitment by terrorists and, on the other hand, the use of Facebook, Twitter, etc. to gain the support of the population during insurgencies. This article conducts a qualitative content analysis of content on Twitter concerning the conflict in the Jammu and Kashmir region. The tweets following the death of a popular militant, Burhan Wani, cover three different themes: (1) criticism of intellectuals; (2) Burhan Wani's impact on the conflict; and (3) tweets referring to the conflict itself. Generally, people use Twitter to make their own point of view clear to others and discredit the opposing party; at the same time, tweets reflect the antagonism between the two parties to the conflict, India and Pakistan. The sample of tweets reflects the lack of awareness among people in the region regarding the motivations of the new generation of militancy emerging in Kashmir after 1990. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effect of terrorism financing and recruitment on attacks. I exploit a Sharia‐compliant institution in Pakistan, which induces unintended and quasi‐experimental variation in the funding of terrorist groups through their religious affiliation. The results indicate that higher terrorism financing, in a given location and period, generate more attacks in the same location and period. Financing exhibits a complementarity in producing attacks with terrorist recruitment, measured through data from Jihadist‐friendly online fora and machine learning. A higher supply of terror is responsible for the increase in attacks and is identified by studying groups with different affiliations operating in multiple cities. These findings are consistent with terrorist organizations facing financial frictions to their internal capital market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cyber space or technology is used to share data or information with unlimited audience. So, sophistication of cyber space has created a global network, where information can be shared or accessed while sitting at home, office or cafe. It has been used by business entrepreneurs to expand their business, researchers to access requires data and information; media houses to increase their TRPs and government bodies to maintain their policies and records. Meanwhile, the coin always has two sides. Thus, beside positive uses of internet; cyber space has been used by terrorist and criminal gangs for the propagation of their thoughts or to increase their working capacity. It also generates space for financing, training and incitement for terrorist organizations. Meanwhile, internet is used as a mean to access and exploit the mind of young individuals by propagating the Jihadi literature. The use of cyber space to enhance radical thoughts has created challenges for states like Pakistan in war against terrorism. So, this paper is an attempt to examine the dynamics of E-Jihad in Muslim world in the context of changing communication means that have been used by terrorist in contemporary digital age. The used methodology to explore the topic is qualitative research methods followed by case study of Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pakistani society has been through the decades of radicalization and violent extremism that is mostly linked to the religious extremist activities which ultimately breeds radicalization. To examine the prevailing issues of radicalization this research aims at investigating the various phenomenon, drivers and approaches of violent extremism in Pakistan. This paper suggests three phases of de-radicalization i.e. protect, prepare and prevent to employ an effective Counter Violent Extremism (CVE) approach in Pakistan. Notable CVE initiatives of Pakistan for reforming inmates have also been discussed in detail. Theoretical underpinnings with highly effective models of Indonesia through family engagement and cyber de-radicalizing, the Malaysia model, which employed CVE through clerics and their sermons, and the U.S. model have been discussed to infer lessons for improving Pakistan's CVE programs. Pakistan's counter-terrorism narrative (Paigham-e-Pakistan) needs to be taught at public schools and colleges to prevent any future recruitment and terrorist activities. This paper underlines prominent challenges to Pakistan's CVE efforts and concludes by suggesting that a civilian authority to manage CVE programs will help increase efficiency. It recommends that the government should establish more CVE centers under civilian authority, in order to give onus of responsibility to government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study challenges the conventional wisdom that the Internet is a reliable source of operational knowledge for terrorists, allowing them to train for terrorist attacks without access to real-world training camps and practical experience. The article distinguishes between abstract technical knowledge (what the Greeks called techne) and practical, experiential knowledge (metis), investigating how each helps terrorists prepare for attacks. This distinction offers insight into how terrorists acquire the practical know-how they need to perform their activities as opposed to abstract know-what contained in bomb-making manuals. It also underscores the Internet's limitations as a source of operational knowledge for terrorists. While the Internet allows militants to share substantial techne, along with religious and ideological information, it is not particularly useful for disseminating the experiential and situational knowledge terrorists use to engage in acts of political violence. One likely reason why Al Qaeda and other Islamist terrorists have not made better use of the Internet's training potential to date is that its value as a source of operational knowledge of terrorism is limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]