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).
Pak's role in Kabul is not sending a good message to India, a top American lawmaker has said
'We can't be outliers. We can't be bystanders. We have to be players.' 'The Taliban also need India to balance the winners in this game.'
"I have not seen anything to corroborate that report," Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby told reporters at a news conference on Thursday when asked about the reported allegations by former Afghanistan president Ashraf Ghani that Pakistan had sent between 10,000 to 15,000 of its men along with the Taliban to capture Kabul and Afghanistan.
India needs to shed its policy of lethargy and inhibitions to engage the Taliban with an intent to maintain its influence in Afghanistan. This would not just put a spanner in Pakistani designs, but also incentivise the Taliban not to be the puppets of GHQ, Rawalpindi, asserts Colonel Nikhil Apte (retd), who served on the Af-Pak desk at the Military Operations Directorate.
If the killing of Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud in a US drone attack is confirmed, it could set off a new power struggle within the Tehrik-eTaliban Pakistan, which may conclude with the naming of Qari Hussain, the chief instructor on suicide bombers, as the new Pak-Taliban chief, according to a report published in the New York Times.
In a surprise move, Pakistan's powerful intelligence chief Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed on Saturday dashed to Kabul, amidst the Taliban struggling to finalise and install an inclusive government in Afghanistan that would be acceptable to the international community.
According to the Inter-Services Public Relations, the media wing of the army, the terrorists attacked the security post in Dera Ismail Khan's Daraban area bordering the South Waziristan tribal district in the early morning hours.
With former prime minister Imran Khan in jail, Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is tipped to emerge as the single largest party in the elections.
A Jordanian suicide bomber who blew himself up at a US base in Afghanistan killing eight, including seven CIA operative, has said the 'jihadists' must carry out revenge attacks inside and outside the US to avenge the killing of Pak-Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.
Internal strife and tribalism is endemic to Afghanistan, notes Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Pakistan-India bilateral relations remained frozen for the fourth year over the vexed Kashmir issue but analysts hope the strained ties could be repaired if Nawaz Sharif becomes the prime minister for a record fourth time in the general elections in February in the absence of his main challenger Imran Khan who is in jail in multiple cases.
Captain Sharan and Flight Engineer Anil Jaggia both confirm that the hijackers seemed to know a lot about flying an aircraft. Without help from the ISI or the Pakistan army, it was impossible, points out Utkarsh Mishra.
Taliban militants, who had kidnapped a top civil official in the restive Swat valley in North West Frontier Province on Sunday, released him only in exchange for two militants, raising question marks over a peace deal stuck between the militant group and the government. Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said the official, Kushal Khan, and his guards had been released in exchange for two militants who were arrested in Peshawar last week.
The visit comes two days after Pakistan officials shared with the Chinese embassy the preliminary findings of their investigation into the attack.
Ehsanullah Ehsan said that he will release a detailed statement later in which he will mention the agreement he made with the Pakistani security authorities.
India abstained in the United Nations General Assembly on a draft resolution introduced by Pakistan and co-sponsored by China on Islamophobia, asserting that the prevalence of 'religiophobia' against Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and other faiths facing violence and discrimination must also be acknowledged rather than singling out just one religion.
Pakistan's Ambassador to Afghanistan Tariq Azizuddin, who went missing in February, on Saturday appeared in a video beamed by an Arabic TV channel and said he was being held by the Taliban. The footage aired by Dubai-based Al Arabiya channel showed Azizuddin, his driver Gul Nawaz and guard Amir Sultan surrounded by armed militants.
New Zealand Cricket officials have commissioned international security consultant and expert Reg Dickason to visit Pakistan later this week to carry out a thorough security and COVID-19 assessment before advising them whether they should send their team to Pakistan.
The Pakistani Taliban on Saturday claimed responsibility for a devastating suicide attack on a mosque in Khyber Agency that killed over 50 people, saying it was carried out in retaliation for local resistance against the militants.
Residents also reported, heavy artillery, tanks and ground troops in hundreds moving towards Buner as forces sought to drive the Taliban back into the Swat Valley. The army estimates there are 400-500 Taliban militants hiding in Buner.
At least 22 Taliban militants were killed and scores wounded as Pakistani war planes kept up their relentless strikes on the bases of Tehrik-e-Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud in restive Waziristan, while police shot dead five other radicals in Karachi on Saturday.
A militant commander said five people were killed in the firefight and several were injured "including Mullah Mansoor."
The army said that three terrorists were "neutralised while entering the base while the remaining three terrorists have been cornered/isolated due to timely and effective response by the troops".
Police in Pakistan's commercial hub of Karachi claimed to have nabbed a potential teenage suicide bomber, along with his Taliban handlers, who he said told him that he was promised paradise if he carries out a bombing. Muhammad Saleem, 16, was arrested by the CID along with two Taliban operatives, Sher Rehman and Zainullah from Sohrab Goth area on the outskirts of the city.
Parkash, a 2022 graduate of Abbottabad International Medical College, serves as the general secretary of the PPP women's wing in Buner.
Saturday's audacious attack by Taliban militants in Rawalpindi has shocked the Pakistani establishment and society.
'I am convinced. I have no doubt about it. I was very open. I have given the full details. If the interior minister of India or anyone else wants to confront me, I will be very happy to confront them because I know what I am saying.'
Pakistan is reportedly lobbying for new government in Kabul without Hamid Karzai as president.
The repeated successful raids of the TTP into military establishments underline the poor state of physical security and the likely complicity of insiders with the TTP raiders, says B Raman
Barack Obama has said that he had ruled out involving Pakistan in the raid on Osama bin Laden's hideout because it was an "open secret" that certain elements inside Pakistan's military, and especially its intelligence services, maintained links to the Taliban and perhaps even al-Qaeda, sometimes using them as strategic assets against Afghanistan and India.
Malala was dressed in Pakistani salwar kameez and dupatta. She was smiling and looked happy as he was greeted at the airport.
A United States drone crashed in the restive South Waziristan tribal region of Pakistan on Sunday, with the Taliban claiming that its militants had shot down the unmanned spy plane.
What does the Taliban chief's death means for various stakeholders?
Pakistani negotiators on Monday cancelled a scheduled meeting with the Taliban after the insurgents claimed they had killed 23 soldiers kidnapped by them in 2010, dealing a severe blow to the fledgling peace process.
India on Monday rejected the charge that it was fomenting unrest in Pakistan by funding Taliban fighters based along the border with Afghanistan.
Pakistan is continuing support to the Taliban and the Haqqani network as part of its backup plan to secure their western border in case the United States leaves Afghanistan, a top US intelligence official has said.
The Pakistani military on Tuesday claimed to have wrested the Taliban stronghold of Sararogha in South Waziristan, where 21 militants and a soldier were killed in fierce clashes over the past 24 hours.
If rapid Talibanisation of Pakistan continues, the next generation of the world's most sophisticated terrorists will be born, indoctrinated, and trained in the nuclear-armed Pakistan, an American think tank on Tuesday said in a report.
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