Terrorism threat in South Asia must be met with joint action

There are clear and worrying signs that the Islamic State terrorist group is seeking to regroup in South Asia: On Friday, it claimed it has established a "province" in India. Prior to this, it claimed responsibility for the Easter Sunday bomb attacks in Sri Lanka that killed more than 250 people.

In a separate development, the Balochistan Liberation Army, a separatist organization, claimed responsibility for an attack on a five-star hotel in Gwadar, Pakistan, on Saturday, in which at least eight people were killed.

All these should sound the alarm for heightened counterterrorism measures in South Asia as the region now faces rising risks from the infiltration and reorganization of IS terrorists driven from Syria and Iraq, as well as the menace of local separatist elements which have long resorted to violence and bloodshed to pursue their political agendas.