Regional States will be worried that the US's nascent engagement with the Taliban behind the fig leaf of humanitarian aid enables the return of US intelligence personnel to Afghanistan, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Whether history will remember Edward Snowden as a traitor to his country or as a champion for free speech and less intrusive government is hard to tell, but the issues he has brought into focus need deep thought, writes Ajit Balakrishnan
Pakistan would want to take full advantage of the situation to direct Taliban trained terrorists into the Kashmir Valley, alert Lieutenant General Ashok Joshi (retd) and Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'Whatever the two countries are doing these days, on the diplomatic front and on their borders, that hostility is not sustainable.' 'Today's world doesn't approve it.'
'It is important to note that American officials were trying their best to use the Taliban for their oil games till December 1997 when Mullah Ghous was invited to America. State Department officials did not show any interest in capturing or killing Osama bin Laden even at that time.'
An official at the Pakistan high commission in Colombo planned strikes on American and Israeli consulates in south India, reports Vicky Nanjappa/Rediff.com
Neither pharma nor IT would have become the stars of the economy without the active but largely invisible hand of the Indian State, says Ajit Balakrishnan.
A senior former Obama administration official said if another attack would have happened like that, it would 'quickly escalates into a regional war'.
The Taliban knows that Washington holds the key, points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'The combination of the LeT and the ISI is the most dangerous terrorist challenge in the world because it carries a real and present danger of provoking nuclear war.'
'It would not be incorrect to say that the Chinese-Pakistani strategy of containing India began in the aftermath of the 1965 war.'
India has no compelling reason to grant his request for asylum but was unduly inhibited in raising its voice against the United States' extensive and vulgar intrusion into the privacy of its institutions and citizens, says Shyam Saran
India has sought access to Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Headley, the Mumbai terror attack convict now lodged in a US prison, as it insisted on bringing to justice the perpetrators of the 26/11 assault.
Security has been heightened at the Israeli embassy, consulates and other Jewish establishments in several states following intelligence inputs that terror groups like Lashker-e-Tayiba may target them.
Security officials on Wednesday revealed that suspected operative of Pakistan's spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence Mohammed Zaheed Hussain, who was arrested days before the twin blasts in Chennai, was part of a larger mission to target critical national assets and some foreign establishments.
Charging the Central Bureau of Investigation for not probing role of a Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Tayiba in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case, the Bharatiya Janata P Party on Thursday alleged that the agency was acting at the behest of the Congress with a one-point agenda to frame the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
For two decades the US paid in blood and blood money for dependence on Pakistan to carry out one president's boast. Now, having been defeated by its proxies, another president will go into Rawalpindi's embrace to satisfy his constituents, predicts Shekhar Gupta.
The US needs to do three things to help the newly elected Nawaz Sharif government in Pakistan, says Stanley A Weiss
Bureaucratic delays have cost the two security agencies precious time in nabbing terrorists. The new arrangement will see the two security agency work together and share information in real time. Vicky Nanjappa reports
The CBI filed two charge-sheets in the encounter case of Ishrat Jahan and three others.
'The Ishrat encounter was neither genuine, nor fake. I believe it was a 'controlled killing,' says Shekhar Gupta.
'Pakistan's trump card is that it is the only credible guarantor on the horizon who can reasonably assure the Western world that Afghanistan will not again become the revolving door for international terrorism.' 'Trust Pakistan to play this card optimally,' explains Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'Vietnam has become an adjective as well as a verb -- the Americans, for instance, were driven by the passion to do a 'Vietnam' on the Soviet Union when that country invaded Afghanistan in 1979.'
Four Chinese soldiers were killed in the fierce clash with the Indian Army in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh in June last year, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) acknowledged for the first time on Friday.
The United States has dismissed reports that President Barack Obama was informed about the tapping of Angela Merkel's mobile phone, even as an American daily on Monday said that spying of as many as 35 world leaders, including the German chancellor, ended when it was brought to his notice.
The National Technical Research Organisation, the ambitious project to protect India's cyber space, is all set to roll out in May. However, experts are sceptical on how the government will maintain a balance between cyber security and civil liberties, reports Vicky Nanjappa.
ISI chief Faiz Hameed coerced the Taliban to announce an interim government guaranteed to preserve Pakistan's control over the levers of power in Kabul, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
A seven-layer security ring will be thrown around the VVIP enclosure on Rajpath for the Republic Day parade to be witnessed by US President Barack Obama and the airspace over the area would be monitored by a radar to be specially set up.
'It is nobody's contention that uncomfortable questions regarding national security should not be raised. But that is a topic for another day and another time when the immediate threat has faded,' argues Vivek Gumaste.
'Biometric Aadhaar-based surveillance is not only about violation of privacy, but also about the treasure hunt for unprecedented financial surveillance and economic intelligence in the economic history of mankind,' asks Gopal Krishna.
Ajit Doval, former chief of Intelligence Bureau and now head of Vivekanada International Foundation, continues his furious argument against any kind of CBI action against his former colleague Rajinder Kumar in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case of 2004.
The trip was the highest level meeting with a North Korean leader since 2000 when then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright met Kim Jong-il, the father of the current leader, in Pyongyang.
Two months after the Malaysia Airlines plane vanished into the skies, conspiracies have floated to explain the enigma of the vanishing flight. Amid these claims, one is that the plane was hijacked and is being prepped for a terror attack by the Taliban or by Israeli terrorists. Anvar Alikhan tries to piece this puzzle together and find out the truth behind flight MH370.
Pak seeks US help to ease tensions with India.
A consortium of three US-based firms - AECOM, KPMG and IBM - was given the task of developing the master plan.
It will not be to India's advantage to create misperceptions that it is bandwagoning with some Anglo-American project for regime change in Myanmar, argues Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'If there's one administration that would be likely to put the squeeze on Pakistan, it's the Trump administration.' 'This is an administration that views terrorists as a black and white issue (kill them all, no questions asked), and will have little patience for Pakistan's selective policy toward terrorism.'
He will be remembered not only as a writer but as one of the great chroniclers and interrogators of the history of our times, says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The Central Investigation Agency's terrorist detainees during the Bush era were far more brutal than previously acknowledged and delivered no 'ticking time bomb' information that prevented an attack, a long-delayed United States Senate report said on Tuesday.
A seven-layer security ring is planned around the VVIP enclosure on Rajpath from where United States President Barack Obama, President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will watch the Republic Day parade next Monday.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances