The Taliban is showing its strong discontent as the high hopes given to it by the Pakistani military have been dashed, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Trump thanked the Government of Pakistan for "helping arrest this monster".
The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) has undergone a significant transformation, evolving from hit-and-run attacks to carrying out sophisticated operations with tactical precision. The group's tactics and targets have become increasingly audacious, targeting security forces, Chinese nationals, and innocent civilians. Experts attribute the BLA's evolution to various factors, including the leadership of Bashir Zeb, the group's growing intelligence network, and its exploitation of the grievances of the Baloch people. The BLA's actions are a cause for concern, as the group's sophisticated attacks pose a major challenge to security forces.
Sections in the US State Department and Pentagon have always felt more comfortable dealing with all powerful Pakistani generals instead of elected civilians, points out Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RA&W.
Among the 24 injured are 14 civilians, including women and children, with several said to be in critical condition.
Former Indian ambassadors urge New Delhi to closely monitor the unfolding political crisis in Nepal, citing regional instability and potential implications for India's interests.
Hundreds of Afghan protesters, including many women, took to the streets of Kabul on Tuesday, September 7, 2021, in an anti-Pakistan protest chanting 'Death to Pakistan', denouncing Islamabad's interference in Afghanistan as well as airstrikes by Pakistani jets in Panjshir province in support of the Taliban.
Secret talks between Pakistani security agencies and the local Taliban have entered a "decisive" phase and both sides are hopeful it will lead to a "lasting" agreement to restore peace in the country's restive northwestern tribal region, a media report said on Tuesday.
If the Taliban have proved one thing over these two decades, it is that they are way smarter than their big brother, observes Shekhar Gupta.
India abstained from a UN General Assembly vote on a resolution regarding Afghanistan, citing the need for a balanced approach that combines incentives and disincentives, and calling for new initiatives to address the humanitarian crisis.
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).
The Taliban government in Afghanistan is not going anywhere. That being the case, why is the hesitation to establish formal diplomatic relations with the Taliban? asks Lieutenant General Prakash Katoch (Retd).
'The worst case scenario for Pakistan is a full-scale Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.' 'Pakistani militants would be inspired and emboldened and seek to replicate the Taliban's successes in Pakistan.'
India-US relations, like Rome, were not built in a day, nor can they be demolished in a day.
All said and done, when the new global order emerges, India can only remain with the democracies, asserts Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
'Throughout the nearly 20-year US-led war, State sponsorship from Pakistan has been a constant.'
Then 18, Talash crossed the border into Pakistan after Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan in 2021 before settling in Spain as a refugee the following year. The International Olympics Committee changed break-dancer Talash's life forever by including her in its refugee squad for the Paris Games.
Pakistan is "in an active counterterrorism fight right now and they have been a phenomenal partner in the counterterrorism world", the general said.
'Pakistan is a nuclear country.' 'With the kind of situation that is there in Pakistan today, America will help Pakistan stay afloat.'
Pakistan is in 'constant touch' with the Afghan Taliban for safeguarding the country's security interests, a top military official has said.
The Taliban has its backers, notably Pakistan and China. Their purpose is to have a monstrous entity near India's northern borders to keep democratic, secular India off-guard, observes Amulya Ganguli.
The attack targeted a Frontier Corps (FC) checkpost on the Mastung road in Quetta, the provincial capital, Deputy Inspector General of Quetta police Azhar Akram said.
Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, the spokesperson for the Pakistan Army, is the son of a nuclear scientist who was sanctioned by the United Nations and the US for providing information and expertise to al-Qaeda, according to Indian officials. Chaudhry's father, Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, allegedly provided insights into nuclear weapons infrastructure and raised funds for a fundamentalist organization linked to the Taliban. Mahmood was arrested in 2001 after admitting to meeting Osama bin Laden but was later released.
Two commandos of the special forces were also killed in the rescue operation that was launched after negotiations between the government and the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan militants to end the hostage crisis failed.
In the wake of the recent hostilities, both sides have moved from weapons to words, with India dispatching several delegations to visit more than 30 capitals across the world. A similar effort by Pakistan is set to start on Jun 2.
Top military officials from India and Pakistan highlighted their views at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, billed as Asia's premier defence forum, amid heightened tensions between the two sides following last month's military confrontation.
Pakistani Taliban elements can be broadly divided into two groups, the 'good Taliban' and the 'bad Taliban'.'Good Taliban' are those who never target Pakistani armies and their focus remains on Afghanistan, while the 'bad Taliban' mainly attack Pakistani government installations and often seek refuge across the border.
'This strike has certainly enhanced your image.' 'Otherwise, people would have called you a damp squib, capable of doing nothing except talking big.'
Singh, the joint secretary heading the division for Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran in the ministry of external affairs, held talks with Taliban's foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi on Thursday.
It is important for India to pay close attention to both the tone and substance of authoritative remarks coming out of Pakistan, explains former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
'Trump will absolutely back New Delhi on its position that Pakistan must do more to crack down on terrorists that threaten India.'
'We've moved from thousands killed yearly in Jammu and Kashmir to 127 last year.' 'Cross-border terrorism in Kashmir is being solved. We are winning it.'
Asim Malik's shift to the important DG, ISI post comes as something of a surprise now, but it indicates the army chief's confidence in him, notes Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RA&W.
'Every decision India makes along the LoC, it must also consider implications along the LAC.'
'Pakistan is determined to garner the peace dividends.' 'On the diplomatic front, this will be, principally, in terms of a revival of Pakistan's relations with the US,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Pakistan was waiting for an opportunity to bring the Jammu and Kashmir issue to the global agenda and resorted to the terrorism route to provoke India, observes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
'We are too important to want to be paired with Pakistan but too intensely connected to it to successfully detach ourselves,' asserts Aakar Patel.
'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.
'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.
'I can see the world's concern. I am concerned. I have daughters who play cricket.'
'Pakistan's only concern has been while they were on the FATF watch list was to distance their State institutions and organs from any direct connection with the actual execution of militancy inside Kashmir.'
