As his militants triggered a series of attacks and suicide blasts across Pakistan on Thursday, Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud threatened to dispatch terrorists to fight India, once an Islamic state had been created in Pakistan. "We want an Islamic state. If we get that, then we will go to the borders and help fight the Indians," Hakimullah said. "We are fighting the (Pakistan) military, police and militia because they are following American orders," he added.
Heavily-armed Taliban suicide attackers on Sunday struck Afghanistan capital Kabul, with several explosions and gunfire rocking the diplomatic enclave as the militants took over a hotel and tried to enter the parliament.
According to intelligence reports, Gen Usmani was the liaison officer between the ISI (Pakistan's intelligence agency) and the Taliban.
The Indian American Intellectuals Forum and Nambdhari Sikh Foundation of New York have sharply criticised the Pakistan government for not taking action against Taliban who demanded US $ 50 million from Sikhs in border areas of the country as Jazia (religious tax) and ransacked, looted and blew up their houses when they refused to pay.
A hitherto unknown pro-Taliban group called 'Ansar Wa Mohajir' has claimed responsibility for Wednesday's car bomb attack in Lahore, for which four alleged Indian nationals have reportedly been arrested by Pakistani authorities.
Pakistan's former interior minister Major General Naseerullah Babar denies a rediff.com column.
A yellow minibus carrying Nepal and Afghan security guards was hit by a suicide bomber in the Banae area, PD9 Kabul city at around 5.40 am.
"I hate all those who advocate ideology of hate, including Taliban, and I won't allow the Hindu version of Taliban to succeed in India," Singh said on Twitter.
India can stay relevant in Afghanistan not by being a bystander but by actively bolstering anti-Taliban forces monetarily, militarily and politically, say Lt Gen R K Sawhney and Sushant Sareen
One of the most dreaded terrorists in the world is now a member of the Taliban cabinet.
Former Central Intelligence Agency South Asia analyst, Lisa Curtis, now a Senior Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, recalled how in 1995, when she served in Islamabad as a diplomat, the Pakistan-based terror groups that were funded, armed and supported by the Inter-Services Intelligence specifically to launch attacks in Kashmir against Indian security forces, also had strong links to the Taliban.
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The Pakistani Taliban have contended that those opposed to referring to dead militants as martyrs are like persons who do not want cricketing icon Sachin Tendulkar to be praised because he is an Indian.
"The situation in Afghanistan is being monitored on a constant basis at high levels. The government will take all steps to ensure the safety and security of Indian nationals and our interests in Afghanistan," Arindam Bagchi, MEA spokesperson said.
A change in the name of the Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) magazine 'suggests a refocusing' of the terror group from Afghanistan to Kashmir, a United Nations report has said.
Ghulam Rasool Khan alias Khan Mirza, the Afghanistani national who was recently arrested in Purnia district in Bihar for his alleged links with the Taliban, holds a Pakistani passport.According to sources, police have recovered a Pakistani passport, issued in 2005, and a diary from Khan. Acting on a tip-off by the IB, the police arrested Khan in Purnia on January 13, and he was brought to Patna for further interrogation.
Afghanistan intelligence officials believe that terror outfit Lashkar-e-Tayiba planned and carried out the terror attack in Kabul last week that killed 16 people, including six Indians.The Afghan Taliban have already claimed responsibility for the attack, during which a car bomb was triggered off and terrorists wearing suicide vests raided hotels frequented by Indians and foreigners, targeting the visitors.
Here are the top 10 quotes from the speech to a gathering of around 50,000 Indians at the Dubai International Cricket stadium
The award-winning journalist was killed in July last while covering clashes between Afghan troops and the Taliban in Spin Boldak district of Kandahar city.
Cut off from the world and having to contend with an orthodox and repressive Taliban government, Afghans are facing the brunt of Pakistan's decades old policy of nurturing militant groups, note Harsh V Pant and Kriti M Shah four months after the Taliban took Kabul.
The alacrity with which regional States responded to Delhi's invite signals that expectations are high regarding an Indian role in the efforts to stabilise the situation in Afghanistan, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
People familiar with the development said on Friday that the Chinese envoy held wide-ranging talks with the external affairs ministry's point person for Afghanistan J P Singh.
'When I stepped on Indian soil, I lay down on the ground and kissed my homeland.'
At a time when Pakistani cricket team is in India to play a bilateral series after a gap of five year, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has termed the visit as a 'disgusting gesture', and says that cricketing ties between the two countries are badly effecting the freedom movement of Kashmir.
The Indian Mujhaideen does not want to be an India centric outfit anymore and is keen on joining forces with the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Vicky Najappa/Rediff.com reports
The United States has asked Taliban to put down arms and begin peace talks as it condemned the suicide attack on a popular Kabul restaurant that killed 21 people, including several foreign nationals.
As a proxy of Pakistan's ISI, Sirajuddin is believed to be behind several attacks directed against India, including the murderous attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul in 2008 and the 2013 attack close to the Indian consulate in Jalalabad.
There is no better way to address the security threat emanating from ISIS and other terrorist groups in Afghanistan than by co-opting the Taliban, asserts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
India has demanded the United Nations to slap sanctions against the new Taliban leader in Afghanistan, saying it is "sheer folly" that the leader of a proscribed entity is not yet designated as a terrorist individual.
Two Indian aircraft would be permitted to operate from the Kabul airport which is under the control of American security forces, government sources told ANI.
Contradicting terrorist groups' claim that they were engaged in jihad in Kashmir, hard-line Pakistani cleric, who brokered a peace deal between Taliban and NWFP government, has said jihad is 'not mandatory' in the Indian state as people there are not demanding Sharia (Islamic law).
The identities of the victims have not been disclosed.
Member-States must ensure that measures taken to counter terrorism comply with their obligations under international law, a spokesperson for the UN secretary general has said, asserting that the global body had "no information" about the whereabouts of Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri killed by a US drone strike in Kabul.
After a year's delay due to COVID-19, the 19th Asian Games officially opens in Hangzhou on Saturday with hosts China eager to lift a country mired in economic gloom.
"Op Devi Shakti in action! @IAF_MC flight with 24 Indian and 11 Nepalese evacuees from Kabul is on its way to Delhi. #DeviShakti," external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi tweeted in the morning.
Referring to the argument made by the US that F-16 sustenance package is to fight terrorism, Jaishankar had said everybody knows where and against whom F-16 fighter jets are used.
Raising the matter during the Zero Hour, Bharatkumar Raut said the latest abduction of an Indian road construction worker in Herat was shocking as a series of such incidents had been taking place. "It is a matter of shame that we are silent spectators," he said and felt that Indians had become soft targets for the Talibans.
India has been mentioned in the report of the Secretary-General on Children and armed conflict since 2010 along with other countries of Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Lake Chad basin, Nigeria, Pakistan, and the Philippines for alleged recruitment and use of boys by armed groups in Jammu and Kashmir; detainment of boys by Indian security forces in J&K for their alleged association with armed groups, or on national security grounds.
"Due to scheduling reasons, it is inconvenient for China to attend the meeting," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told mediapersons.
Remember the US withdrawal agreement was signed in February 2020. In the intervening period, a proper evacuation plan ought to have been in place. It was not. Consequently, tens of thousands of Afghans who had worked as interpreters, drivers, suppliers of goods and services, etc, face brutal retribution from the Taliban, Virendra Kapoor points out.
The Taliban have the ISIS in its crosshairs. The Taliban has shown the skill to assimilate extremist elements if they are reconcilable as well as the ruthlessness to eliminate troublemakers, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar
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