It seems that the West is sending a signal to India that it can return to old hostilities unless India toes their line on Russia. It is no surprise that India is being compared with Putin's Russia in terms of targeting 'dissidents' as the West calls these Khalistani terrorists, asserts Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Raising concern over the nearly 1.25 crore feedback submissions received by the parliamentary committee scrutinising the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, Bharatiya Janata Party member Nishikant Dubey has called for a probe into their sources, including in the possible role of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and China.
Security was tightened around a government girls' school in Rawalpindi after a letter allegedly sent by the Pakistani Taliban warned that it would be blown up if it is not shut down, a media report said on Monday.
Afghanistan and the US have criticised Pakistan in the past for allowing Taliban fighters to cross into Pakistan where they are provided safe havens and also receive medical treatment.
With hardline commander Mullah Fazlullah at its helm, the Pakistani Taliban has vowed to launch a wave of revenge attacks and ruled out talks with the government.
The Afghan tradition of gaining control of areas does not necessarily involve combat. Most engagements are settled through negotiations and pay-offs before battle is joined. This style of fighting is peculiar to Afghanistan, explains Ajai Shukla, who witnessed such a transaction between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance in November 2001.
The attack on the Balochistan Police College, 20 km from Quetta city began around 11:10 pm on Monday night, triggering an operation by Pakistani security forces who rescued hundreds of cadets from the academy.
Eight members of an Al Qaeda suicide squad, including their local handler, have been arrested by Pakistani security agencies in past week, officials said.
Pakistani Taliban has warned that the next few days and weeks would be "disastrous" for the country as the banned outfit vowed to "teach" the government and its security agencies a lesson over the killing of its leader Hakimullah Mehsud in a US drone strike.
The chief of the Islamic State militant group in Af-Pak region has been killed in a US drone strike in eastern Afghanistan, three days after another top leader of the terror outfit died in a similar American air assault, a media report said on Saturday.
The Taliban will view India through the eyes of the ISI and can be relied upon to undertake hostile actions against this country, warns Virendra Kapoor.
"We attach great importance to our trade, economic and political relations with India and want to maintain that relation," Stanekzai said.
India is worried about Pakistan getting the Taliban to ignite trouble in Kashmir, observes Ramesh Menon.
'What has the impact of 40 years of warfare in Afghanistan been on us?' 'Afghanistan is marginal to India's future.'
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).
Security Expert Bruce Riedel, who in an interview with rediff.com shortly after the Pathankot terror attacks began said that the attack underscored the determination of jihadist groups in Pakistan to sabotage any attempt at detente with India, writes in the Daily Beast that despite the US putting the Jaish-e-Mohammad on the terrorist sanctions list years ago, the outfit continues to coddle the Pakistani army.
Their leaders in the provinces, which have been under the control of Taliban commanders for several months now, speak the language of the bigot. Women are known to have been abducted and enslaved. Several young girls have simply disappeared.
'Pakistan is a nuclear country.' 'With the kind of situation that is there in Pakistan today, America will help Pakistan stay afloat.'
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.
The Jamatul Ahrar, a splinter group of the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that it was carried out to avenge the hanging of Mumtaz Qadri, killer of Taseer.
The Pakistani Taliban have issued a fatwa against the media, declaring it a "party" to the conflict in the country, and drawn up a hit-list of journalists and publishers, a media report said on Thursday.
Asim said 53 injured were currently being treated while seven had been admitted to the intensive care unit.
CIA Director William J. Burns held a secret meeting in Kabul on Monday with Baradar in the highest-level face-to-face encounter between the Taliban and the Biden administration since the militants seized the Afghan capital, the Washington Post reported, citing unnamed US officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity,
The spokesman even taunted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Twitter. "After the Lahore attack, Nawaz Sharif repeated old words to give himself false assurances," he wrote.
It's intriguing that the prime minister now wants his American partner to help protect the Hindu minority in Bangladesh. That's conceding to the Americans a pre-eminence India has always contested, resented and feared, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
Considering that Qatar is a trusted ally of Washington for decades, it is expected to be a steady influence on the Taliban leadership, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The blast took place as a bomb placed inside the bus exploded when the vehicle packed with government employees reached Peshawar from Mardan.
'Women have 100 per cent inclusion in the health sector. They are also teaching in the education sector. They are working in each and every one of those sectors where they are required'
"Ambassador Mittal raised India's concern that Afghanistan's soil should not be used for anti-Indian activities and terrorism in any manner," it added.
The Border Security Force has been put on high alert along the India-Bangladesh border in Assam and Tripura following intelligence inputs of Islamic terrorists planning to infiltrate the country.
The brazen Karachi airport attack clearly suggests the role of the Pakistani Taliban's sleeper cells in the city that must have planned it during the interval when their central leadership was busy talking peace with the government, a media report said on Thursday.
In a major setback to peace talks, the Pakistani Taliban on Wednesday refused to extend the 40-day "gift of ceasefire" but said they were committed to the process the government initiated to find a solution to the decade-long insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives.
The visit comes two days after Pakistan officials shared with the Chinese embassy the preliminary findings of their investigation into the attack.
The decision was taken during a meeting between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Pakistan counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi in the southwestern the Chinese city of Chengdu on Saturday.
'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.
Trust deficit has widen further between Pakistani secret agencies and the Afghan Taliban after reports surfaced that Taliban leader Ustad Yasir has dies in a Pakistani jail. Tahir Ali reports.
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.
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.
The IS claimed the attack on social media and Twitter.
The Afghan Taliban is struggling to find a successor to slain chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour.
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