Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has denied Islamabad's role in last year's Mumbai terror attacks, but claimed that his government has concrete evidence to prove India's involvement in the ongoing terror activities in Pakistan."Now, it has been admitted globally that Pakistan was not involved in the Mumbai terror attacks. We have concrete evidence regarding Indian involvement in terror activities in Pakistan," the Daily Times quoted Qureshi as saying.
Sources close to the top BJP leadership tell me that Tharoor has already had secret meetings with the BJP's top brass and is waiting patiently to make his next move, reports Ramesh Menon.
There are challenges galore before him, and it is not going to be easy. In the next four years, he has to conjure a system that changes the optics about him and the BJP both nationally and internationally so that he can ride back on his own, claim the top slot, and not have to lean on a coalition, asserts Ramesh Menon as Modi 3.0 completes a year in power.
On Jawaharlal Nehru's 61st death anniversary, Utkarsh Mishra recalls how India's first prime minister cultivated a unique role for the newly independent country on the world stage.
Several Pakistani nationals visiting India started returning home through the Attari-Wagah land route in Amritsar on Thursday, a day after the Centre set a 48-hour deadline for them to leave the country. The decision came after India announced a raft of measures, including the expulsion of Pakistani military attaches, suspension of the Indus Water Treaty of 1960, and the immediate shutting down of the Attari land-transit post in view of the cross-border links to the horrific terror attack in Kashmir's Pahalgam that killed 26 civilians on Tuesday.
A former Bangladesh army officer and close aide of Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus has suggested that Dhaka should collaborate with China to occupy India's northeastern states if it attacks Pakistan in response to the Pahalgam terror attack. Bangladesh's interim government has distanced itself from the remarks made by Major General (Retd) ALM Fazlur Rahman on his social media account. Rahman's comments come amidst growing tensions between India and Bangladesh following Yunus' remarks in China about India's northeastern states being landlocked and needing Bangladesh's access to the ocean. These incidents have further strained relations between the two countries, with India withdrawing transhipment facilities granted to Bangladesh for exporting goods to the Middle East, Europe, and various other countries.
The political and ideological differences between the Congress and Shashi Tharoor is no longer a matter of whispers.
According to the 2021 England and Wales Census data, of the 915,855 citizens born in India, 49 per cent (444,500) said English was their main language, followed by 41 per cent (373,583) who said another language was their main language but that they spoke English very well or well.
The delegations led by Baijayant Panda, Ravi Shankar Prasad (both Bharatiya Janata Party), Sanjay Kumar Jha (Janata Dal-United), Shrikant Shinde (Shiv Sena), Shashi Tharoor (Congress), Kanimozhi (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) and Supriya Sule (Nationalist Congress Party-Sharad Pawar) will visit a total of 32 countries and the EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
'A stable and strong Pakistan with an anti-India mindset and hatred is not good for us.'
Any aggression against Iran over its nuclear programme will have "disastrous consequences" for the whole region, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar has warned.
Their shared brief: To assert India's case with clarity, rebut hostile narratives, and secure enduring partnerships for global counter-terror cooperation.
In his petition, Suri's lawyer said that he is being punished as his wife, who is a US citizen, is of Palestinian heritage and because the government suspects that he and his wife are against the US foreign policy towards Israel.
A group of people had attacked the mission in Kabul.
Pakistan PM forms high-level committee to decide on national team's participation in ODI World Cup
An announcement in this regard was made by Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee after his meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mohammad Qureshi, who is currently visiting India. Pranab also spoke about the threat posed by terrorism and said both the countries have to be 'unambiguous' in fighting the menace.
As the international apprehensions grew over the release of rouge atomic scientist A Q Khan, Pakistan on Saturday defended setting him free, saying his clandestine nuclear proliferation network had been "dismantled." "A Q Khan is history," Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said, claiming that the Pakistan authorities had broken his nuclear smuggling network and extracted all the information from him.
The foreign minister said he has other engagements in Bangladesh while the home minister cancelled the visit due to ongoing protests against CAB.
'What signal would we be sending -- that we don't stand by our friends?'
Former Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Monday resigned from both Parliament and the ruling Pakistan People's Party and launched a scathing attack on President Asif Ali Zardari, saying he had "sold" out his values to cling to power.
The ministry of external affairs said in a statement that the Indian embassy remains in touch with the community with a view to extend all feasible assistance.
A Cabinet Committee on Security meeting, chaired by Prime Minister, has been convened to discuss the emerging scenario in Pakistan. This is the second briefing the Prime Minister will have on Pakistan.
According to top official sources, the foreign secretaries will meet only after the Special Investigation Team from Pakistan arrives in India and makes concrete progress in the probe.
The possibilities of this serviceable thriller are immense but the makers prefer to play it safe and hold back the daredevil in the diplomat's clothing, observes Sukanya Verma.
Pakistan has indicated its readiness for the foreign secretary-level talks on February 25, saying the two sides need to 'move forward' but insisted on resumption of composite dialogue covering Kashmir and other outstanding issues that is 'meaningful and result-oriented.'
'If they aim to remain aligned with the public sentiment, as any democratic government should, then they must respond. Why else would the prime minister have cut short his visit to Saudi Arabia? And why would he have instructed the home minister himself to travel to Srinagar to assess the situation firsthand? This suggests that something is indeed being planned. I am quite certain of that, although the exact form it will take remains to be seen.'
In the book, Anger Management: The Troubled Diplomatic Relationship Between India and Pakistan, Bisaria says this public telecast sounded to observers like a mid-summit report on the talks, where Pakistan's hard views were being inflicted on India, while New Delhi's positions were unclear.
The Anti-Discrimination Student Movement (SAD), which led protests against Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has launched itself as a political party called the National Citizen Party (NCP). The new party, which aims to 'dismantle constitutional autocracy' and establish a 'second republic,' has pledged to create a 'solely Bangladesh-oriented' political system, with no room for 'pro-India and pro-Pakistan politics.' The NCP's inaugural rally was attended by representatives of various political parties, including the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Jamaat-e-Islami, and envoys from the Vatican and Pakistan.
While India today is vastly different from the India of 1975, the need for vigilance against authoritarianism remains the same, asserts Utkarsh Mishra.
'You can be sure that the Pakistanis knew when the Indian Air Force aircraft took off, which type these were, and what their likely targets were.' 'The question was: How would they determine that the IAF wanted to fire, and when to bounce them?', notes Shekhar Gupta.
During the day-long visit, the Pakistani delegation will hold talks with Afghanistan's acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and call on leadership of the interim government in Kabul and other Afghan leaders, according to Foreign Office.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Thursday briefed United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Pakistan's investigation into the Mumbai terror attacks and the trial of suspects linked to the incident.
The banned Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the blast was a suicide attack targeting a convoy of Chinese engineers and investors leaving the Jinnah International Airport.
Days after the Pahalgam terror attack, Jammu and Kashmir authorities have deported 59 Pakistani nationals, including the mother of Shaurya Chakra awardee Constable Mudasir Ahmad Sheikh. The Pakistani nationals were living in the valley for decades and were transported to Punjab for repatriation. However, the mother of the deceased soldier was later allowed to stay back. The deportation comes after the Indian government announced a slew of measures against Pakistan in the wake of the Pahalgam attack, including the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty and the downgrading of diplomatic relations.
India has strongly rejected as "baseless" allegations of its interference in Canadian elections and asserted that the core issue has been Ottawa's meddling in New Delhi's internal affairs.
Government sources said the hawkish elements in Pakistan, which do not want dialogue between the two countries, were upset when the talks between the Home Ministers and Home Secretaries went off well last month.
US President Donald Trump announced a 26 per cent "discounted reciprocal tariff" on India, half of the 52 per cent levies imposed by India on American goods, as he described India as "very, very tough."
Indian business tycoon Sajjan Jindal, along with his family, attended the wedding festivities of the grandson of former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif in Lahore. Jindal, the managing director of JSW Steel, was among 700 local and foreign guests who attended the wedding of Sharif's grandson Zayd Hussain Nawaz at their palatial Jati Umra Raiwind residence in Lahore on Sunday. Several other Indians also attended the festivities.
Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi Monday said there is still a 'degree' of standoff between the Indian and Chinese militaries along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh and both sides need to sit down and firm up a broader understanding on how to calm down the situation.
Former National Security Advisor (NSA) Shivshankar Menon has stated that the political dynamics between India and Pakistan have resulted in a "controlled level of hostility" that benefits the ruling elites in both nations. Speaking at the Kerala Literature Festival, Menon described Pakistan as a "brand new state" still grappling with its national identity. He argued that India's foreign policy towards Pakistan is influenced by its domestic politics, resulting in an uneasy equilibrium characterized by a "controlled level of hostility." Menon also questioned the concept of a multipolar world, stating that the current global order is merely "confused." He emphasized that the United States remains the world's true military hegemon, while other nations, including China, are regional powers. Menon further argued that there is no binding international order, leading to a state of "between orders." He highlighted the absence of definitive international agreements on crucial issues in recent decades.
