The outcome of the Bangkok NSA-level talks underscores that Pakistan has got exactly what it wanted -- talks at different levels, talks on Kashmir, talks on mutual concerns regarding terrorism, talks on ceasefire on the border. What if any has been India's gains remains unexplained, says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Pakistan faces a challenge largely of its own creation and only political processes can correct it, argues Raza Rumi.
India must watch for signs after Peshawar that Pakistan is waking up to the dangers of Islamism, muses Ajai Shukla
'We have leaders who would rather that we cohabit with the Indian Mujahedeen than fight terror, as long as the payoffs are there in the next polls... Obviously, we are not headed down the best route to keep terror at bay,' says Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
'Perhaps the biggest indication was its striking decision in November to delink LeT from its aid certification process.' 'The administration decided that the US, in order to send military aid to Pakistan, would not need to certify that Pakistan is cracking down on LeT.' 'Perhaps the administration was trying to offer a carrot -- in effect, we're backing off on LeT, but in return we expect you (Pakistan) to go after the Haqqanis.' 'Either way, the optics were dreadful for the US given that Hafiz Saeed was released from house arrest a few days after the US move.' 'The US reacted angrily, but eventually it moved on, and refocused on its core concern: The Afghan-focused terror groups.'
Afghanistan said Pak was diverting attention of the international community from its 'longstanding failure' to take effective action against terrorist groups.
'Foreign ministry sources in Delhi discount the official version of the story, in which Modi made an impromptu request to stop over at Lahore, during the course of a birthday telephone call to Nawaz Sharif. In fact, this stopover had been carefully considered in Delhi, as a way to galvanise the peace process further.'
Barack Obama has said that he had ruled out involving Pakistan in the raid on Osama bin Laden's hideout because it was an "open secret" that certain elements inside Pakistan's military, and especially its intelligence services, maintained links to the Taliban and perhaps even al-Qaeda, sometimes using them as strategic assets against Afghanistan and India.
'India serves itself poorly with its latter-day discovery of Pakistan as an instrument in domestic politics,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
'Our biggest problem has been keeping this country together.' 'Nation building is never easy. It is a very difficult task.' 'Even 70 years is not too long a time.'
'When war is thrust on you as in 1962 and 1965 or is tempting as in 1971, ensure that all other fronts are kept quiet, leaving your army free to deal with one,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said that Pakistan is verifying the facts to bring the perpetrators to justice.
President Barack Obama has said that the United States has ironclad commitment to bring its prisoners of war home, as his administration released five detainees from Guantanamo Bay detention centre in exchange of an American soldier in Taliban captive for nearly five years.
If he doesn't, two things are guaranteed: Failure for him, and continued slide for his nation despite its talented people, strong nationalism, the gift of geography and a formidable army, points out Shekhar Gupta.
'Nawaz Sharif knows a coup in 2016-2017 will not only complete Pakistan's isolation, but even a whiff of instability will frighten the world into imagining another Islamic State-zone, and this in a fully nuclearised subcontinent,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Through its early days to the 1980s, Pakistan sought to expand its sphere of Islamic influence through Afghanistan to Central Asia and got Pakistani citizens recruited in the Afghan government institutions in the 1990s when the Taliban were power. Now, it is looking eastward through India to Bangladesh and Myanmar to establish an imaginary caliphate.
Donald Trump and General H R McMaster: It is almost like the Chinese monarch Helü with Sun Tzu at his side.
'Just this week, the Indians killed a Kashmiri terrorist, who is a member of Hizbul Mujahideen.' 'This is a nasty terrorist organisation, and did Pakistan welcome this killing?' 'No, in fact, they denounced it and referred to him as a Kashmiri separatist.' 'These Kashmiri terrorist groups have been aided by the Pakistani State.'
Pakistan's prime minister is trying to use the unrest in Kashmir to save his government, says Ambassador G Parthasarathy, a former high commissioner to Islamabad.
'The Pakistani military has encouraged and supported terrorist organisations, especially in Kashmir, as a means of waging proxy war against the Indian military and the country's superior economic resources.' 'The evidence is irrefutable with the recent killing of 46 paramilitary troops being just the latest example.'
'One of R&AW's greatest achievements is in projecting itself as benign.' 'This work -- done in tandem with the Diaspora and the MEA -- sells a story of India as mostly the victim.'
Talking tough in the wake of attack on army camp in Nagrota, India on Thursday made it clear that talks with Pakistan cannot take place in an atmosphere of "continued terror", which it will never accept as "new normal" in the bilateral relationship.
Khan's government will be the third consecutive democratic government in Pakistan since 2008.
'Here in Delhi, the Modi government is supposedly looking at 'options' to hit back at Pakistan in any whichever way it can, while in Washington, the Obama administration is looking for ways to strengthen US military cooperation with Pakistan,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Being attended by nearly 40 countries and leading groupings like the European Union, the annual conference of the Heart of Asia -- Istanbul Process is deliberating on various challenges facing Afghanistan, including revival of a peace process in the conflict-ridden country.
Defence Secretary Ashton Carter declined to give a certification to the Congress that Pakistan is taking sufficient action against the dreaded Haqqani network.
It currently has between 140 and 150 nuclear weapons in its control and stockpiled around 200 to 300 kilogram of plutonium.
Pakistan has the second-largest stockpile of anti-personnel landmines in the world, a report said.
Even as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif headed to the United States for the 70th session of the UNGA and for bilateral meetings to be held on the sidelines of the multilateral summit, back home all that is expected of him is to internationalise the Kashmir issue, or as Pakistan puts it, the 'Kashmir dispute'.
'Modi's finest political legacy ought to be a border settlement with Beijing,' asserts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'A Russia-Iran-China-Pakistan geopolitical grouping is evolving at this point of time.' 'Given that the grouping is in its nascent stages, will this week's terrorist attack in Mirjaveh affect it?' asks Aveek Sen.
Rediff.com reproduces the translation of the remarks made by President Ashraf Ghani at a press conference.
'There is a consensus within the Indian security establishment -- at least among those who draw their conclusions from data instead of speaking from nationalist sentiment -- that India lacks the offensive capability to defeat Pakistan in a short war.'
After India, Afghanistan was among three other countries which pulled out of the SAARC summit to be hosted by Pakistan.
'There is gradual rise in the number of nations viewing Pakistan as the nursery of global terror.'
It is bound to fail like the earlier ones, again causing Pakistan enormously more damage than to India, points out Shekhar Gupta.
Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Tayiba was responsible for the terror attack at the Indian Consulate in Afghanistan's Herat province last month, the US said on Wednesday.
'If push comes to shove, Pakistan does have the capability to make it difficult for the US and NATO forces to make even a withdrawal of troops out of Afghanistan in orderly fashion,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
A grieving Pakistan's policy shift towards the Taliban has comes at a great cost, says Shahzad Raza.
Pak seeks US help to ease tensions with India.
