'The unexpected turn of events and assertion of sovereignty by the Taliban has baffled the Pakistan security establishment.'
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.
A special NIA court in Jammu and Kashmir has ordered the immediate attachment of land belonging to Ghulam Nabi Fai, a US-based Kashmiri lobbyist and convicted agent of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
Jammu and Kashmir Police detained over 50 people for alleged involvement in anti-state activities following raids across multiple districts. The crackdown targeted separatist networks, overground workers, and individuals linked to Pakistan-based Kashmiri natives.
In a post on X, Sherman said that he 'emphasised to the Pakistani delegation the importance of combatting terrorism, and in particular, the group Jaish-e-Mohammed, who murdered my constituent Daniel Pearl in 2002'.
China and Pakistan are in a tight strategic alliance. India must deal with them one at a time, but be prepared in case they decide to collude, points out Shekhar Gupta.
'It is high time that the 'war on terror' is removed from our diplomatic toolbox.' 'Certainly, our parliamentarians have no role in it,' asserts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Saturday (local time) highlighted how India responded in a measured and calibrated manner towards terror bases and headquarters in Pakistan, following the dastardly Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed.
Sharif said that the US president had shown beyond any doubt that "he is a man for peace... and beneficial business deals".
The political and ideological differences between the Congress and Shashi Tharoor is no longer a matter of whispers.
'It is typical of China's strategic deception of making virtue out of necessity,' observes Rup Narayan Das.
The petition letter, drafted by council member Ghulam Nabi Fai, has signatures of nearly 1400 persons from the Kashmir Valley. However, not one Kashmiri politician has signed it.
'Fears in Washington began to intensify when it was realised that subsequent Pakistani and Indian attacks on major military facilities -- which were significant in terms of geographic scope and intensity -- could rapidly take both sides to where neither actually wanted to go.' 'The US objective was to stop the fighting as soon as possible. Everything else was secondary.'
'Unfortunately, India and Pakistan could learn a 'lesson' from this conflict that will make them more likely to use these weapons against each other in the future.' 'Rounds of missile and drone attacks could be more routine features of their hostility, just like artillery fire has become a familiar fact of life along the Line of Control.'
After the 1962 War with China, there was a demand to forge greater defence cooperation between India and the West. One such voice was that of Sudhir Ghosh, a distinguished MP, to tie up strategic cooperation with the USA immediately after the Chinese attack on India, recalls Rup Narayan Das.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Pakistan's military and its power intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence funnelled $4 million over two decades to tilt America's Kashmir policy against India. But despite Kashmir American Council's executive director Ghulam Nabi Fai relentless efforts, he hardly influenced the Clinton, Bush or Obama administration, believes veteran diplomat Howard Schaffer.
Retired veteran diplomat Howard Schaffer, author of the acclaimed The Limits of Influence: America's Role in Kashmir, has said, "If the Inter-Services Directorate or some other organ of the Pakistan government has been footing the Kashmir American Council's bills, as seems so obvious, it is hard to conclude that they have been getting their money's worth."
Separatist outfits in Kashmir have reacted strongly to the arrest of Ghulam Nabi Fai, the executive director of the Kashmir American Council based in Washington, by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Terming the arrest of Dr Fai as "unjustified", hard-line separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani said, "The arrest has been made at the behest of the government of India. It is the result of a deep rooted conspiracy to weaken the ongoing movement in Kashmir."
United States Congressman Joseph Pitts, a seven-term Republican representing Pennsylvania, has declared that there can be no military solution to the Kashmir imbroglio, and called on President Barack Obama to keep his campaign pledge to help resolve this dispute between India and Pakistan.
There are some embarrassed faces, some awkward silences in newspapers and television channels in North India. They belong to some of those journalists and academicians who availed the hospitality offered by Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai, who ran the Kashmiri American Council, also known as the Kashmir Center.
India has repeatedly rejected criticism by foreign governments, lawmakers and human rights groups on allegations that civil liberties have eroded in the country.
Ten days after Hizbul Mujahideen leader Burhan Wani was eliminated by the armed forces, Kashmir continues to see massive unrest, with the violence claiming over 40 lives.
United States Congressman Dan Burton, Indiana Republican and ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who was in the 1980s and 1990s India's bete-noire on Capitol Hill, after a considerable hiatus when he took a sabbatical against castigating India, seems to have had a relapse, this time at the urging of the Kashmiri American Council and the pro-Pakistan lobby.
The 18 new members were elected by absolute majority through a secret ballot.
'All propaganda is going on (against India). Certain sections of the Western media also. They joined this propaganda about India, about the security and safety of minorities'
It's a simple resolution, which cannot be voted in the other chamber, Senate, and does not have the force of law.
It is also for the first time ever that so many Indian-Americans have been roped into a presidential administration ever before the inauguration. Biden, a Democrat, is still quite far away from filling all the positions in his administration.
'The Vladivostok visit marks a subtle reversal of trend discernible in the revival of India-Russia relations pioneered by Modi during the past couple of years,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Had it not been for the slow but sure emergence of China as a threat to the western order, would India have been accepted as a near-equal partner by individual western nations, jointly and severally, questions N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Increasing Indian influence meant "people here in Washington DC, in Brussels, in London or other world capitals don't talk about Kashmir".'
'Congrats to our team @USUN for their work in negotiating JEM's Masood Azhar's #UN designation as a terrorist,' Pompeo tweeted.
Kashmiri separatist leader Ghulam Nabi Fai, who has been accused of being an Inter Services Intelligence agent and funneling its money into the United States to influence American lawmakers on Kashmir, has admitted to taking money from Pakistan's spy agency. During his detention hearing at the US district court in Alexandria, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, the prosecution said that Fai, the head of Kashmiri American Council, had admitted to receiving funds from the ISI.
Before coming under the scanner of the investigative agencies, Pakistan's ISI had developed a closely-knit network of middlemen or straw donors through whom it illegally funnelled its propaganda money to Kashmiri separatist Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai and his Kashmiri American Council.
India also went on an overdrive in expanding its military engagement with like-minded countries in its neighbourhood and beyond in the face of China's relentless attempts to become a regional hegemon and establish its primacy in South Asia.
The best, wisest, and fairest next step in strengthening our own cause is to restore statehood to Jammu & Kashmir and allow the resumption of robust political activity. That's a box that remains unchecked on the Modi government's report card as we approach the fourth anniversary of Kashmir's Constitutional shift, notes Shekhar Gupta.
Holding placards and banners, rival Kashmiri groups staged protests outside the United Nations on Friday afternoon during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's address to the plenary session of the UN General Assembly.
'The sooner Pakistan and India face these geopolitical realities, the better it will be for their own security and prosperity,' observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
United States Republican Party member Dan Burton, who is reportedly the largest individual recipient of money from two alleged Pakistani spies, has said that he is "deeply shocked" by the arrest of Kashmiri American Council executive director Ghulam-Nabi Fai.
EAM Jaishankar's mission is aimed at strengthening India's strategic autonomy in a complex international environment, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
India's failure to resolve the Kashmir issue and improve relationship with Pakistan has been an "impediment" to India's rise and become the greatest hurdle in it becoming a permanent member of the UN Security Council and the Nuclear Suppliers Group, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's envoys have claimed.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances