ConflictBarometer_2015

ASIA AND OCEANIA
central government as part of the Peaceful Balochistan Plan. However, violence continued countrywide with the Federally
Administered Tribal Regions being most severely affected. After several groups had split off from TTP the previous year, it
strengthened its rank and file in 2015 with some groups renewing their alliance with TTP this year [→ Pakistan (inter-Islamist
rivalry)]. Even though cross-border skirmishes between Pakistan and India continued in 2015, diplomatic steps were
undertaken to ease tensions [→ Pakistan India].
In Central Asia, elections took place in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. Even though no instances of
violence were reported, especially the presidential election in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan lacked democratic standards
such as a credible electoral alternative [→ Kazakhstan (opposition); Uzbekistan (opposition)]. In particular, the situation in
Tajikistan turned increasingly tense when several high-ranking military officers and officials defected to militant Islamist
groups and engaged in violent clashes with the government [→ Tajikistan (Islamist militant groups)]. Outrage was caused by
the ban of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan, formerly being the only legal religious party in Central Asia, which was
also classified as an extremist and terrorist organization by the Tajik Supreme Court in September [→ Tajikistan (opposition)].
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