The billions India invested in dams, schools, etc in Afghanistan will be gone. The Hindu and Sikh population of Afghanistan has already shrunk from some 200,000 to about 500, points out Rajeev Srinivasan.
Mr Modi might have questions to ask himself on the most formidable strategic challenge before India that he inherited from the United Progressive Alliance: The triangulation between China and Pakistan. The failure to break out of it, or even loosen it a bit, is something to reflect on, notes Shekhar Gupta.
Security has been beefed up across Pakistan to fend off a looming threat by Taliban to launch the "biggest attack" on some unspecified important installation, officials said on Monday.
The diplomatic crisis between Pakistan and Afghanistan deepened on Sunday after Kabul announced that it will withdraw its ambassador and other senior staff from Islamabad after the abduction and torture of the daughter of its envoy to Pakistan.
United Arab Emirates is the favourite to host the ODI tournament in March.
With a narrow industrial base and dysfunctional politics, and a counter-productive national security agenda, Pakistan could well remain an 'international migraine', observes T N Ninan.
Trump disclosed that he was to meet the Afghan President and senior Taliban leaders on Sunday at his Camp David retreat.
Tahir Ali reports on the growing presence and activities of Taliban militants in Pakistan's largest city Karachi
Qin, who recently succeeded Wang Yi, had a phone call at the request of Bilawal on January 9, a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement in Beijing said on Tuesday.
Afghanistan doesn't have a women's team since the Taliban took over.
Expressing concern over the situation in Afghanistan, a group of eminent persons, including former ministers K Natwar Singh, Yashwant Sinha and Mani Shankar Aiyar, on Wednesday urged the government to continue engaging with the Taliban and not allow any political party to use the developments in that country to communally polarise Indian society for electoral gains.
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.
Afghanistan will remain a frontline state for Washington for a foreseeable future in terms of the potential threats to US national security from terrorist groups, asserts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar, who played a stellar role in beginning India's dealings in Afghanistan in 1994.
"We have removed the leader of an organisation that has continued to plot against and unleash attacks on American and coalition forces, to wage war against the Afghan people, and align itself with extremist groups like Al-Qaeda," the US president said in a statement.
With commercial flights from Kabul airport yet to resume, media reports said the Afghanistan team had been looking to travel to Pakistan by road and fly to Colombo via Dubai.
'We have been bold and innovative on recognition in the past and we do not need to rush,' advises Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Biden's remarks could be seen as a setback to the Shehbaz Sharif government's bid to improve ties with the US.
For Afghans in India, including medical tourists from the war-torn country as well as migrants and refugees staying here much longer, the safety of friends and families is the biggest concern - particularly for those linked to the now collapsed government or who have had work ties with the US.
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has decided that the outfit will now focus on jihad inside Afghanistan, reports Tahir Ali
A militant commander said five people were killed in the firefight and several were injured "including Mullah Mansoor."
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.
Australian cricketers are on edge barely a month before their first tour of Pakistan in 24 years, amid an uptick in terror attacks in the Asian nation.
The army chief's comments on Wednesday, at the Raisina Dialogue, on engaging with Taliban were first such public remarks by a senior functionary of the government.
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.
'India would not like to see Pakistani domination and tutelage of Afghanistan against Indian security and economic interests.'
Malala was dressed in Pakistani salwar kameez and dupatta. She was smiling and looked happy as he was greeted at the airport.
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has appointed a new spokesperson, who will work as deputy to main Taliban spokesperson Azam Tariq.
A spokesperson of the Karachi Police confirmed in a statement that the Karachi police chief's head office had come under attack.
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told the Pashto-language Khyber Television channel that the bodies of the slain Frontier Constabulary personnel had been dumped at Spin Tul, an area near North Waziristan Agency.
Afghanistan witnessed a series of terror attacks in the last few weeks as the US aimed to complete the withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan by August-end, ending a nearly two-decade of its military presence in the war-ravaged country.
Amid efforts by the concerned governments to hold peace talks with them, the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban have said they would continue their "struggle" till "the Western inspired systems" of governance in both countries are overthrown.
Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, a top Afghan Taliban leader who backed the peace process and a former aviation minister in the pre-2001 Taliban regime, has been appointed as the new chief of the insurgent group, as Taliban confirmed the death of its longtime supremo Mullah Omar.
The Pakistani Taliban has announced a month-long ceasefire to facilitate the resumption of peace talks suspended by the government over the recent execution of 23 troops.
"We've been told every time that... (the phone call) will happen, it's technical reasons or whatever. But frankly, people don't believe it," he said. "If a phone call is a concession, if a security relationship is a concession, Pakistan has options," he added, refusing to elaborate.
Police in Pakistan's restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province said on Monday that an initial probe has suggested that the banned terrorist group Islamic State is behind the suicide attack on a political convention of a hardline Islamist party that killed at least 46 people and injured over 100.
'Washington is well aware that the Haqqani group was responsible for terrorist attacks on the Indian diplomatic establishments in Afghanistan.' 'But today US self-interest dictates that Sirajuddin Haqqani's mainstreaming in Afghan political life and a potential elevation eventually to a leadership role at the national level is useful and necessary, since he can deliver peace,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Ahmed Rashid, perhaps the world's foremost expert on the Taliban, says while it's true that the Pakistani army may be in denial over the internal existential threat of the Taliban and other extremist groups and may be obsessed over the perceived threat from India, it is imperative New Delhi cuts Islamabad some slack.
The new video comes even as the world condemned the Taliban for beheading two Sikhs in the same area a few days back.
Ryan Wesley Routh, who authorities suspect was planning to attack the Republican presidential nominee as he played a round of golf, made these remarks to The New York Times.
The outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has defended its attacks on politicians, claiming its fighters were targeting liberal political parties for their secular ideology and support for military operations.
