Abstract:
Daesh has emerged out of the instability and chaos of the
Middle East and aims to expand its influence across the
world as stated in its motto of „remaining and expanding.‟
The objective of this paper is to point out that Daesh ingress
in South Asia must be seen as a threat to the entire region
and not as a problem of individual states. It tries to assess in
broad strokes the vulnerability of South Asian countries in
conjunction with their historical background and current
circumstances to analyse possible implications of the
group‟s presence. While Daesh may try to exploit the fault
lines of religious militancy and sectarianism in South Asia,
factors such as intact sovereignty and integrity of states
along with stronger militaries could help contain this
phenomenon. Meanwhile, it is the group‟s technological
hold and effective use of social media which highlights the
need of collective regional cooperation for devising
counterstrategies against this phenomenon.
