By appearing to privilege ideological affinity over strategic balance, India risks eroding the trust painstakingly built across West Asia. Once the perception takes hold that India's friendship is conditional and transactional, rebuilding credibility will be difficult, warns Amberish K Diwanji.
What began as a mentor-protege relationship between UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has now evolved into a broader contest over influence, strategy, and leadership in the Middle East, points out Asif Ullah Khan.
'The unexpected turn of events and assertion of sovereignty by the Taliban has baffled the Pakistan security establishment.'
India and Russia have called for an uncompromising global fight against terrorism without hidden agendas and double standards. Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted that the menace is a direct attack on the values of humanity.
Ajit Pawar became a ray of hope for Muslims, the only man in power who could resolve their grievances.
The Deepa Thoon controversy, if not allowed to die a natural death, could take the election focus away from the anti-incumbency impacting the DMK and into the secular space. Stalin would love to have it that way, all over again, after the three past elections, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
'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.'
A UN Security Council report states that The Resistance Front (TRF) claimed responsibility for the Pahalgam terror attack and published a photograph of the attack site. The report also cites assertions that the attack could not have happened without the support of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT).
Upset over the possible appointment of Ramchander Rao as Bharatiya Janata Party's Telangana President, the party's firebrand MLA Raja Singh on Monday wrote to Union Minister G Kishan Reddy saying that he is resigning from the primary membership of the saffron party.
National Security Adviser Ajit Doval on Tuesday called for shunning double standards in combating terrorism and urged members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) to hold accountable perpetrators, organisers and financers of cross-border terrorism, seen as reference to Pakistan.
The Council of Islamic Ideology issued a statement after a meeting which was presided over by its chairperson, Dr Qibla Ayaz.
Their shared brief: To assert India's case with clarity, rebut hostile narratives, and secure enduring partnerships for global counter-terror cooperation.
In a significant ruling, a constitutional Islamic body in Pakistan has said that covering of face, hands and feet was not mandatory for women under Islamic laws.
The Council of Islamic Ideology raised serious concerns over not including verses about jihad in the proposed syllabi for public educational institutions.
The fatwa was issued against the Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief by Mufti Mohammed Saleem Barelvi, an Islamic seminary in Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh.
However, he suggested that Ukraine was also somehow involved.
'The use of nuclear/biological/chemical weapons by Islamic terrorists is just a matter of time.' 'It must be clearly understood what the world faces is a global level insurgency against the world order.' 'Terrorism is merely a tactic and Islamic State its most brutal face, says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
A Pakistani court has dismissed three identical petitions challenging the construction of the first Hindu temple in the country's capital.
The total tally of COVID-19 patients in the largest province of Punjab was 2,270, Sindh 1,128, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 620, Balochistan 219, Gilgit-Baltistan 215, Islamabad 107 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir 33.
India proposes to organise a briefing of the Security Council on December 15 on 'Global counter-terrorism approach - principles and the way forward" under the 'Threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts'.
Terror group Al Qaeda is "shaping" its regional affiliate in the Indian subcontinent to spread its operations into Jammu and Kashmir, Bangladesh and Myanmar, according to a UN report.
A central leader of radical Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party, Rehmat Salam Khattak, is among 30 arrested in raids following the attack on the temple in Terri village in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Karak district on Wednesday, Station House Officer Rehmatullah Khan told PTI.
What should be made out of the Madras high court order involving non-Hindus' entry into Hindu temples, when many non-Hindus are among the hundreds of thousands that have been worshipping at these temples for generations, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
Experts recommend awaiting the findings of the 2021 Census, which is yet to be conducted, before introducing population control policies.
After decades of delay and inaction, the Hindu minority community in Pakistan will soon have a marriage law as a parliamentary panel has unanimously approved the Hindu Marriage Bill.
'Earlier we had been told we were the crown of India.'
"Every religion of the country has contributed to the growth of the nation. It is our responsibility to correct this atmosphere. We have to think as to what kind of India we will give to our future generations. You (religious leaders) are the most capable and you have bigger responsibilities to shoulder," Doval said.
At that particular time, Naik was largely considered a non-controversial figure.
photographer Fahhad Rajper made a series of powerful photographs of women called #TryBeatingMeLightly featuring Pakistani women of all ages reacting to the Council of Islamic Ideology's ridiculous bill about 'beating wives lightly'.
The transmogrification of Prime Minister Modi to Saint Modi began with the ground-breaking ceremony of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. By identifying himself with Lord Ram, Modi raised himself in popular imagination to a saintly person.
The PFI is alleged to have been continuously involved in anti-government propaganda and spreading the narrative that Muslims were being persecuted in India.
Bijendra Prasad Yadav, the senior-most minister in the state cabinet, also lamented that the lack of cohesion was causing allies to engage in allegations and counter allegations, a job best left to the Opposition.
The remarks by China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, Geng Shuang, came during an emergency meeting of the Security Council on the situation in Afghanistan on Monday after the sudden and rapid takeover of the Afghanistan government by the Taliban insurgents.
The 13th report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team cites a UN Member State as saying that Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), a Deobandi group ideologically closer to the Taliban "maintains eight training camps in Nangarhar, three of which are directly under Taliban control."
The Centre has imposed a ban on the Popular Front of India (PFI) and several of its associates for their alleged terror activities.
The inaugural Sangamam turned out to be a political Hindutva function than a gathering on the Hindu religion, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
A group of clerics today asked the government not to hold peace with the banned Pakistani Taliban after it condoned the recent bomb attack on a church in Peshawar that killed over 80 people.
India also called for crippling the illicit drug trade which provides financial sustenance to these terror outfits.
The BJP continuing to look at the Dravidian polity through the religious prism has not worked in Tamil Nadu whereas it has yielded political and electoral results across much of the rest of the country, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The KCBC, in a statement, said that even the United Nations reports have made it clear that money earned from drug trafficking is being used for terrorist activities.
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