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.
'India won't take anything from Pakistan lying down.'
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).
An MI-17 transport helicopter was on its way to Russia for maintenance when it crash landed on August 4 in a Taliban controlled area of Logar province. The rebels made the crew members as hostages.
'There's a lot of sense in what Prime Minister Modi did, but the Indian government has to be really prepared for a really sharp escalation spiral.'
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.
Asim Munir and his brand of short-sighted army officers give no inkling of paying heed, changing course or learning lessons from the past, observes Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RA&W.
A top local Taliban leader has dismissed contentions by Pakistani officials that India is helping militants in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
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
Terrorism and insurgency in J&K had subsided when India demolished East Pakistan -- for the simple reason that Pakistan understands power. We need to follow Chanakya's dictum of Saam, Daam, Dand, Bhed for strategising against Pakistan, asserts Lieutenant General Prakash Katoch (Retd). The ground truth is that unless we are prepared to acknowledge our shortcomings, including massive intelligence failures, punish those responsible and take corrective actions, we will continue in the same vein, asserts Lieutenant General Prakash Katoch (Retd).
'If there is a military standoff eyeball to eyeball on the western border, the Chinese could create problems by making movements in the north, in our northeast, which could involve us tying down some forces there so that could stretch our military actions.'
At least two policemen were killed and many others injured when Pakistani Taliban militants seized a counter-terrorism centre and took some people hostage in the Bannu district of Pakistan's troubled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
'I am worried that Pakistan will still feel compelled to take substantive military action beyond this apparent drone activity.' 'If so, the crisis could persist for a while more and dangerous days are still ahead.'
Their shared brief: To assert India's case with clarity, rebut hostile narratives, and secure enduring partnerships for global counter-terror cooperation.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has reportedly released a video apparently showing the severed heads of a dozen Pakistani soldiers.
'If Pakistan's army wants to escalate violence in Kashmir, they have an unlimited supply of jihadis they can train and send. That's not an issue for them.'
'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.
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.
'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.'
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.
Pakistani Taliban have beheaded 12 soldiers captured during a recent attack on a security check post in the restive Bajaur tribal region and released a video showing their severed heads, a militant spokesman said on Friday.
Following the death of top Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan members, a comparatively weakened Pakistani Taliban are ready to hold peace talks with a government that is increasingly seen at odds with the United States. Amir Mir reports from Islamabad.
The Pakistani Taliban have released a dramatic video of an attack by militants on a jail in the country's northwest that resulted in the escape of nearly 400 prisoners last month.
Pakistani security forces believe that the new Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud is already dead and the terrorist group is using his "lookalike brother" for media interviews to give an impression that he is alive, media reports in Islamabad claimed.
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.
The Pakistani Taliban has staged a bloody comeback in Malakand division by killing three peace committee chiefs, reports Tahir Ali.
The dreaded Al-Qaeda is trying to install one of its commanders as the new "chief" of Pakistani Taliban, which it fears is in disarray, following the reported slaying of group's leader Baitullah Mehsud in a US missile strike.
Pakistani Taliban militants based in Afghanistan have threatened fresh attacks in Pakistan that will target anyone supporting the United States and promoting American interests in the region.
Will Gen Kayani's increasingly conservative soldiers fight the Waziri militants, who have long been lauded as a sword arm of Pakistan, asks Ajai Shukla.
Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik has rejected offer of a ceasefire by the Taliban. The Pakistani Taliban's spokesman outlined conditions for a ceasefire, which said the country must stop its involvement in the war pitting Afghan insurgents against the Kabul government and refocus on a 'war of revenge' against India.
The Pakistani Taliban, which claimed responsibility for a botched car bombing in New York's Times Square in 2010, on Tuesday denied any role in the bombings at the Boston Marathon in the US that killed three people and injured over 140.
The Pakistani Taliban, which claimed responsibility for a botched car bombing in New York's Times Square in 2010, today denied any role in the bombings at the Boston Marathon in the US that killed three people and injured over 140.
Taliban's supreme commander Mullah Mohammad Omar, now in hiding, has put pressure on his groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan to form a new grouping which has pledged to stop targetting Pakistani security forces and instead focus attention on US-led troops in Afghanistan.
The Pakistani military has "significantly degraded" the Pakistani Taliban, but is still reluctant to take action against the elements of Afghan Taliban operating from inside its territory, a top US General said on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif thanked US President Donald Trump for acknowledging Pakistan's role in counter-terrorism efforts after the country arrested a wanted terrorist. Trump thanked the Pakistani government for helping arrest "Mohammad Shareefullah", also known as Jafar, who supported and conducted activities on behalf of ISIS-K in support of multiple lethal attacks, including the Abbey Gate attack in 2021. Sharif said the terrorist, an Afghan national, had been apprehended in an operation along the border with Afghanistan.
Militant commander Maulvi Faqir Muhammad declared himself the head of the Pakistani Taliban, saying he was temporarily replacing Baitullah Mehsud, whom Washington and Islamabad have said was almost certainly killed in a drone attack.
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.
Pakistani Taliban commanders have contacted cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan to broker peace talks with the Pakistani government, but he said he would act as a mediator only if authorities give their consent.
Angered by the coverage of its attempt to assassinate teenage rights activist Malala Yousufzai, the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has drawn up plans to target Pakistani and international media organisations across the country.
The possibilities of this serviceable thriller are immense but the makers prefer to play it safe and hold back the daredevil in the diplomat's clothing, observes Sukanya Verma.
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