India has upgraded its technical mission in Kabul to an embassy, with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar acknowledging the Taliban's consideration of India's security concerns. The announcement was made during talks with Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, marking a significant step in advancing ties between the two nations.
'Pakistan wanted India out of Afghanistan to which again the Taliban told Pakistan to take a walk.' 'Six months after they came back to power in 2021 India was back in Afghanistan at the request of the Taliban.' 'The Taliban realised that India has no agenda of its own in Afghanistan.'
Biden has ruled out any change in the plan to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan despite the Taliban increasingly gaining control over large swaths of the war-torn country
A top Republican senator has criticised the Afghan policy of United States President Barack Obama, opposing his troop withdrawal plan from the country and the peace talks with the Taliban.
Praising India's "constructive" role in the reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, the Pentagon in a report told the United States Congress that New Delhi has now expressed an interest to help strengthen the capabilities of the Afghan National Security Forces.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif thanked US President Donald Trump for acknowledging Pakistan's role in counter-terrorism efforts after the country arrested a wanted terrorist. Trump thanked the Pakistani government for helping arrest "Mohammad Shareefullah", also known as Jafar, who supported and conducted activities on behalf of ISIS-K in support of multiple lethal attacks, including the Abbey Gate attack in 2021. Sharif said the terrorist, an Afghan national, had been apprehended in an operation along the border with Afghanistan.
Security agencies have gathered evidence, including Pakistani government documents and biometric data, confirming that the terrorists involved in the Pahalgam attack were Pakistani nationals.
Underscoring the need for more rapid development of Afghan national security forces, President Barack Obama has given his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai a clear time line of 18 to 24 months to achieve the goals set by the US.
The local administration denied the rumours about aerial strikes by the Pakistani fighter jets on the compound, saying the explosives used in bomb making exploded, causing the death of 24 people, including 14 militants.
The Taliban stole a large amount of weapons as well.
'Can a nuclear-armed nation sustain itself indefinitely under overt military rule without catastrophic consequences for itself and the region? History suggests otherwise.'
Developing relations with the Taliban is needed, but plunging headlong into Afghanistan without due thought will be akin to the rooster entering a KFC outlet, warns Lieutenant General Prakash Katoch (Retd).
India has always provided very strong support to minority communities in Afghanistan, particularly Sikhs and Hindus, and it is an important part of New Delhi's effort to evacuate those Afghan nationals who want to leave the war-ravaged country, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla has said.
'Pakistan is uncomfortable with the Indian presence in Afghanistan. They want the Taliban to ensure that there is no Indian presence in Afghanistan.'
Gen Ahmadzai was scheduled to arrive in New Delhi on Tuesday on a three-day visit to explore ways to deepen bilateral military ties in the backdrop of the Taliban carrying out offensive operations across Afghanistan following the withdrawal of foreign forces.
The group along with three copies of the Sikh scripture, Guru Granth Sahib, was airlifted from Kabul to Dushanbe by a military transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force on Monday.
The 'mediation' by the United States from behind the scene on the diplomatic track appears to be once again working, which calls on both Delhi and Islamabad to show restraint and pull back from a military confrontation, notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
When corruption eats into the vitals of a nation, the State structures decompose and collapse. And when the leadership loses respect of the people, the war is lost, asserts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar, who played a stellar role in beginning India's systemic dealings in Afghanistan in 1994.
Additional Afghan forces have been deployed around the Indian consulate which was attacked on Wednesday in Jalalabad city of Afghanistan by heavily-armed terrorists including suicide bombers.
The US military has confirmed that they will not return to the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan either to destroy or to retrieve the equipment.
The Pentagon has praised India's significant contribution in the peaceful development of Afghanistan, aimed at securing a stable region and facilitating economic corridors into Central Asia.
Downplaying the Afghan Taliban's recent praise of India in not kowtowing to the West, the US State Department has said the Obama administration is pleased with the support that New Delhi is giving to strengthen the security, stability, prosperity of Afghanistan.
The announcement on expansion of CPEC was made following a meeting among Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, his Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar and Afghanistan's Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in Beijing, according to a Pakistani readout.
Just two soldiers are known to have survived unscathed after the attack on the base.
An intense 25-hour gun-battle between security forces and terrorists outside the Indian consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif came to end on Monday night with the killing of all the attackers who attempted to storm the Mission building.
According to the data, the total number of persons of concern to UNHCR in India stands at 43,157. Among them, 15,559 refugees and asylum seekers are from Afghanistan.
The embassy cited the rescue of the engineers in fresh security advisory while calling upon all Indians in Afghanistan to strictly adhere to the measures advised by it in view of a spike in violence in that country.
India strongly rejected Pakistan's 'unwarranted aspersions' over United Nations processes and attempts to deflect attention from atrocities committed against children in the country and rampant cross-border terrorism, asserting that the world has not forgotten the Pahalgam attacks.
Afghanistan has invited India to broaden its engagement in that country, including in enhancing the capabilities of its security forces, but made it clear that it would resist attempt by anybody to undermine the destiny of its people, in an apparent reference to Pakistan.
Top military commanders of Afghanistan, Pakistan and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation on Sunday discussed border control measures and mechanisms to avert "untoward incidents" along the Afghan frontier, as the three sides resumed high-level military contact after a break of several months.
The United States still intends to withdraw some 33,000 troops from Afghanistan by next year, US President Barack Obama told US Congress.
It is learnt that the consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif will continue to operate through the local staff members.
India's immediate priorities have been the safe return of the Indians still in Afghanistan, bringing back the Afghan nationals who stood by New Delhi, and ensuring that Afghan soil is not used for terrorism directed at India
India on Sunday brought back nearly 400 people, including 329 of its nationals and two Afghan lawmakers, in three different flights as part of its efforts to evacuate its citizens from Kabul in the backdrop of the deteriorating situation in the city after its takeover by the Taliban
With the Afghanistan government in Kabul approaching Islamabad for help in opening "reconciliation" talks with the Taliban, a Pakistani role in shaping the political landscape in Afghanistan is now an uncomfortable likelihood for New Delhi.
"Ambassador Mittal raised India's concern that Afghanistan's soil should not be used for anti-Indian activities and terrorism in any manner," it added.
he United States did what we went to do in Afghanistan, to get to terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 and deliver justice to Osama bin Laden, and to degrade the terrorist threat to keep Afghanistan from becoming a base, from which attacks could be continued against the United States.
Several blasts tore through a gurdwara in Kabul on Saturday, killing two persons, including a Sikh, and injuring seven others, while Afghan security personnel thwarted a bigger tragedy by stopping an explosive-laden vehicle from reaching the place of worship of the minority community in the war-torn country.
"Last night in Afghanistan, US special operations joined Afghan commandos from the first special operations battalion in a full mission exercise demonstrating a night air assault. This was an Afghan plan, an Afghan-led mission," Pentagon Press Secretary George Little told media persons.
The participants exchanged views on ways and means to bring peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan.
