Terrorists Targeting Autonomous Regions

Countries who have allotted parts of its territory as autonomous regions should have a review of terrorist activities within those areas. It seems that even if the central government is quite strong, terrorists aims to exploit these regions for their violent activities. The man arrested in the recent terrorist plot in New York City trained in the a Pakistani autonomous region.

Wikipedia defines autonomous regions as:

An autonomous area is an area of a country that has a degree of autonomy, or freedom from an external authority. Typically it is either geographically distinct from the country or is populated by a national minority.

Seeds of ideology sympathetic to terrorists seem to grow in autonomous regions wherein the population are poor and are at generally at odds with its central government. Here are some countries wherein it is having problems with terrorism within its designated autonomous zones.

Pakistan: Federally Administered Tribal Areas

China: Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region

Chechnya

Philippines: Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM)

Somalia: Puntland

Yemen

Spain: Basque Country

Tajikistan’s Gorno-Bakhashan autonomous region