Speaking to ANI, Qatar-based spokesperson of Taliban Suhail Shaheen said, "What do you mean by military role? If they come to Afghanistan militarily and have their presence, I think that will not be good for them, they have seen the fate of military presence in Afghanistan of other countries. So it is an open book for them. And about their help to the Afghan people or national projects, I think that is something which is appreciated."
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.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, during his telephonic conversation with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday, discussed the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan amidst chaotic airlifts of Afghan civilians and diplomats by the US and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation countries before the August 31 deadline.
Dismissing this as "nonsense", the Pakistani President accused Karzai of being "totally oblivious of what is happening in his own country."
"Absolutely untrue", State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said, when asked there was a feeling inside Pakistan that they are being sidelined in these talks with Taliban.
China's Ambassador to Afghanistan Wang Yu and Acting Minister of Refugee Affairs of the Afghan caretaker government Khalil-ur-Rehman Haqqani attended the handover ceremony at the airport.
In a significant climbdown, the Pakistani Taliban on Wednesday said it is ready for a ceasefire and peace talks if the government stops arresting its fighters and killing them in fake police encounters.
Rescue officials on Tuesday recovered the severed head of the suspected suicide bomber who they believe blew himself up inside a mosque packed with worshippers during the afternoon prayers on Monday in the high-security zone in Pakistan's restive northwestern Peshawar city.
The Pakistani Taliban threatened on Tuesday to attack NATO supply trucks if they tried to resume supplies to troops in Afghanistan. Tahir Ali reports.
The Pakistan Army on Tuesday claimed that its forces waging a tough ground offensive in the lawless South Waziristan tribal region have captured most of the towns and populated centres from the Taliban.
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.
The Pakistan govenment's military offensive against the Taliban in the country's strife torn northwest has resulted in atleast 1,000 taliban terrorists being killed, Pakistan's Interior minister told the Dawn.
'It has been 14 years since I began living in exile and it's shocking that the situation in Balochistan has only worsened rather than improved.'
Amid India's concerns that Afghanistan's territory might be used for anti-India activities under the Taliban regime, the terror group has said that it has the right to raise its voice for Muslims anywhere, including in Kashmir. However, it added that the group does not have a policy of raising arms against any country.
At least 10 people, including five soldiers, were killed on Monday in a Taliban suicide attack at a market close to Pakistan's military headquarters in Rawalpindi, a day after one of the deadliest attacks on security forces killed 20 troops.
'It appears on the face of it that the Taliban of 2021 is not the same Taliban of 2001. There appears to be some difference. They are making mature statements. That is something we have to take note of,' former external affairs minister Yashwant Sinha said
The Taliban is highly pragmatic and would regard it wasteful to resume military offensive to capture Panjshir. The Taliban's preference, historically, has been to keep the military option as the last resort, explains Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar
In an unusual step, the Afghan Taliban on Tuesday batted for Pakistan over the issue of Inter-Services Intelligence-backed terror strikes in Afghanistan, claiming that the United States "wants to spread chaos in Pakistan" and weaken its government.
The remarks by China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, Geng Shuang, came during an emergency meeting of the Security Council on the situation in Afghanistan on Monday after the sudden and rapid takeover of the Afghanistan government by the Taliban insurgents.
Terror group Al Qaeda is "shaping" its regional affiliate in the Indian subcontinent to spread its operations into Jammu and Kashmir, Bangladesh and Myanmar, according to a UN report.
A top commander of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Omar Khalid Khorasani and three other top terrorists have been killed in a mysterious blast in eastern Afghanistan's Paktika province, a Pakistani media report said on Monday.
'Even during the worst days during the 1990s, India was dealing with the Taliban.'
The Pakistan government has released over a dozen jailed Taliban commanders to secure the release of a Chinese engineer who was kidnapped by the militants nearly six months ago.
Pakistan is making efforts at multiple levels for the Taliban government to have a soft landing, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Omar runs a shadow government, complete with military, religious and cultural councils, and has appointed officials and commanders to virtually every Afghan province and district, just as he did when he ruled Afghanistan, the Taliban claim, the New York Times reported on Monday.
The timing of these transfers, while being projected as routine, is significant in both strategic and political terms, asserts Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency.
A suicide bomber targeted a police van in northwest Pakistan on Friday, killing two policemen, including an officer, and injuring several others. The attacker struck the vehicle of Station House Officer Syed Ajmer Shah at Nowshera in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. Shah and his driver were killed in the attack, police officials told the media. Shah had received threats from the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, the officials said.
Gen Kiyani has already withdrawn regular army troops from South Waziristan as demanded by Baitullah and has lifted the economic blocade imposed against the Mehsuds.
Pakistan's intelligence agency Inter State Intelligence continuous to play a role in supporting Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, leaked intelligence documents have indicated, even as the US continues to route billions of dollars in funds to its key ally in the war against terror.
The move is a critical step in the transition to full Afghan control by the end of 2014 as announced by US President Barack Obama at a NATO summit in Lisbon last year, The Express Tribune newspaper quoted its sources as saying.
The Pakistan army has admitted that it is in contact with Afghan Taliban leaders, including Mullah Mohammad Omar, and can bring them to the negotiating table with the US if its concerns with India are addressed.
The Pakistani Taliban has reportedly issued a challenge to the country's media to stop the praise of retired Indian cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar and instead get behind Pakistani captain Misbah-ul Haq, whom they branded as ''sub-standard'' and a ''low-level player''.
'From what evidence has come up, General Bajwa somehow managed to tell the Americans that I was anti-American.' 'And so, it [the plan to oust me] wasn't imported from there. It was exported from here to there.'
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai on Monday said that Pakistan has a key role to play in his government's peace talks with the Taliban because the militant group operates from there. "They operate from there. And a meaningful peace process cannot go well or end in satisfactory results without Pakistan's participation and help," Karzai said. Karzai said he could not hold peace talks with Taliban unless the militants produce a verifiable authorized representative.
A spokesman was responding to suggestions by reporters that the Al Qaeda and Taliban, thrown out from Afghanistan, are now operating from Pakistan.
The explosion took place at 4 pm at the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl workers' convention in Khar, the capital of Bajaur tribal district.
The participants exchanged views on ways and means to bring peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan.
A senior police officer said that rescue work had been completed at the site and the injured had been taken to hospital.
Two Sikhs who were kidnapped for ransom were found beheaded by the Pakistani Taliban in Pakistan's restive tribal belt in yet another brutal act by the militants.
The madrassa in Akora Khattak in Nowshera district of the province is known for having several top Afghan Taliban leaders among its alumni, including former Taliban chief Mullah Omar who received an honorary doctorate from the seminary.
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