The Afghan tradition of gaining control of areas does not necessarily involve combat. Most engagements are settled through negotiations and pay-offs before battle is joined. This style of fighting is peculiar to Afghanistan, explains Ajai Shukla, who witnessed such a transaction between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance in November 2001.
Trump had a hastily-arranged bilateral meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani
Thousands of Afghans rushed into Kabul's main airport on Monday, some so desperate to escape the Taliban that they held onto a military jet as it took off and plunged to their deaths.
The US military efforts in Afghanistan were akin to filling a bucket that had gaping holes, asserts Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Afghan President Hamid Karzai arrived in Islamabad on Friday on a two-day visit during which he will hold talks with Pakistan's leadership to boost the reconciliation process with the Taliban in the war-ravaged country.
'Every decision India makes along the LoC, it must also consider implications along the LAC.'
Earlier, the Taliban took control over Jawzjan province's capital Sheberghan and Nimroz province's capital Zaranj.
India is apprehensive about the Taliban's return as it would mean loss of access to Baluch rebels and help to the restive tribals of Waziristan. This would be a setback to the Indian strategy of returning the compliments of death by a thousand cuts to Pakistan, notes Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Pakistan is "in an active counterterrorism fight right now and they have been a phenomenal partner in the counterterrorism world", the general said.
'Siddiqui was alive when the Taliban captured him. The Taliban verified Siddiqui's identity and then executed him, as well as those with him'
Pakistani security forces claimed to have killed 64 Taliban militants in an intensified operation in various parts of the troubled Bajaur tribal region near Afghan border, as the locals continued shifting to safer places. However, independent sources said 11 militants were killed and eight others injured on Sunday in the aerial blitz at Loisam, Rashkai, Tang Khatta and other areas of the violence-hit agency, local daily The News reported on Monday.
Trump suggested a stronger military response is imminent.
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.
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.
'But an overthrow of the Afghan government would really embolden regional militant groups in a big way.' 'LeT and JeM could be emboldened, and prompted to replicate in Kashmir what the Taliban did in Afghanistan.'
The US intends first to cripple the Afghan government financially through sanctions, freezing of assets, denial of access to international banking, etc, and then proceed to do pretty much what it wants to do with scant regard for Afghanistan's sovereignty, predicts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Women petition the Taliban. Talibs patrol Kabul's streets. Afghans flee into Pakistan.
Investigators are now reportedly looking at a possibility of the missing Malaysian Airline passenger jet being flown to Taliban-controlled bases. The Flight MH370 went off civil radar just after 40 minutes after take off from Kuala Lumpur on March 8, carrying 239 people.
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.
Dreaded Islamic State militant group has appointed a breakaway Taliban commander as its chief in Khurasan, a historic name used by militants for an area covering Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of India.
'This strike has certainly enhanced your image.' 'Otherwise, people would have called you a damp squib, capable of doing nothing except talking big.'
Internal strife and tribalism is endemic to Afghanistan, notes Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The Taliban rulers on Tuesday banned university education for women nationwide, as they took decisive steps to crush their right to education and freedom.
The Taliban on Wednesday said that the negotiations with the leaders of the Panjshir province have gone in vain as it is the only province that is still out of the Taliban's reach in the country.
China will host the third meeting of the foreign ministers of Afghanistan's neighbours in Tunxi, central China's Anhui province, on March 30-31, the spokesperson said.
Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid said that women should not go to work for their own safety.
India on Tuesday supported Afghanistan's reconciliation process with the Taliban, but warned that it must not undermine the legitimacy of the Afghan government and should be within the internationally accepted "red lines".
Their leaders in the provinces, which have been under the control of Taliban commanders for several months now, speak the language of the bigot. Women are known to have been abducted and enslaved. Several young girls have simply disappeared.
The Indian side expressed readiness to provide extensive humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, Mujahid was quoted as saying by Afghanistan's Tolo News.
Robust military preparedness along the entire perimeter of our nation is the only iron-clad permanent guarantee for our security, asserts Vivek Gumaste.
In its first public appeal to Taliban and other Afghanistan-based militant groups, Pakistan on Friday asked them to "turn a new leaf" and join direct talks with the Kabul government under a peace process aimed at ending the decade-old war in the neighbouring country.
The last 15 days have turned the life of young Afghan television anchor Beheshta Arghand upside down.
The flawed Indian policy toward Afghanistan is missing the woods for the trees. The Modi government doesn't have a 'big picture', observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar, who played a stellar role in beginning India's systemic dealings in Afghanistan in 1994.
All things taken into consideration, the Taliban statement on Kashmir portends trouble ahead. The Taliban is notorious for doublespeak and when it says there is no link between the Kashmir issue and the Afghan settlement, the opposite must be taken into account as well, points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Reports coming from the ground confirm that an intense battle between Taliban and opposition forces to control the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul, the last Afghan province holding out against the group.
Acting Foreign Minister of Afghanistan, Amir Khan Muttaqi, on Wednesday arrived in Islamabad, his first visit to the country, as part of efforts by the two sides to reset their ties in the wake of the Taliban's takeover of Kabul.
India's immediate focus is to ensure that Afghan soil is not used for terrorist activities directed against it, the ministry of external affairs said.
'The really striking thing is that the Taliban has suo moto presented to us certain firm benchmarks against which it expects us to hold to account the Taliban rulers's actions in the period ahead' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'This funding provides support directly to some of the more than 18 million vulnerable Afghans in need in the region'
Taliban have imposed a blockade in Afghanistan's Panjshir province, denying residents food and carrying out some extrajudicial killings, The Washington Post reported.
