India-US relations, like Rome, were not built in a day, nor can they be demolished in a day.
All said and done, when the new global order emerges, India can only remain with the democracies, asserts Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Dilip Joseph's employers, Colorado-based Morning Star Development, insisted that it did not pay any ransom to the Taliban for the release of the doctor, who worked with it for the last three years and has been a frequent traveller to Afghanistan.
A delegation led by J P Singh, joint secretary (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran) at the ministry of external affairs, visited Kabul on Thursday, June 2, 2022, to to survey Indian developmental projects in Afghanistan.
'The background for the Saudi-Pakistan agreement is the fact that the regional security order has collapsed due to the Israeli attack on Doha.' 'The Americans have largely abandoned their security guarantee for West Asia and the region has no choice but to look at alternatives.'
The US intelligence assessment highlights Pakistan's near-certain procurement of weapons of mass destruction-applicable goods from foreign suppliers, primarily through Chinese support.
A UN Security Council report states that The Resistance Front (TRF) claimed responsibility for the Pahalgam terror attack and published a photograph of the attack site. The report also cites assertions that the attack could not have happened without the support of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT).
Sections in the US State Department and Pentagon have always felt more comfortable dealing with all powerful Pakistani generals instead of elected civilians, points out Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RA&W.
Then 18, Talash crossed the border into Pakistan after Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan in 2021 before settling in Spain as a refugee the following year. The International Olympics Committee changed break-dancer Talash's life forever by including her in its refugee squad for the Paris Games.
'We need to be very vigilant as we are passing through some fraught times.'
An Afghan national working at the Indian consulate in Jalalabad sustained injuries when unidentified persons opened fire at his vehicle. India had closed operations at the consulate in 2020 but a number of local staffers were working at the mission. The Afghan staff member of the consulate, identified as Wadood Khan, was reportedly working as a translator. Khan had left Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover and went to India. He reportedly returned to Afghanistan few months back and rejoined the consulate.
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).
Pakistan is "in an active counterterrorism fight right now and they have been a phenomenal partner in the counterterrorism world", the general said.
The Indian side expressed readiness to provide extensive humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, Mujahid was quoted as saying by Afghanistan's Tolo News.
We have nothing to gain by raising our concerns internationally as our narrative has got entangled with several controversial concepts in the United Nations, asserts Ambassador T N Sreenivasan.
The Taliban's remarks came after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed a $25 million development aid package for Afghanistan in the Union Budget.
Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, the spokesperson for the Pakistan Army, is the son of a nuclear scientist who was sanctioned by the United Nations and the US for providing information and expertise to al-Qaeda, according to Indian officials. Chaudhry's father, Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, allegedly provided insights into nuclear weapons infrastructure and raised funds for a fundamentalist organization linked to the Taliban. Mahmood was arrested in 2001 after admitting to meeting Osama bin Laden but was later released.
'When the Taliban took over there was a genuine fear that they will harm me, but right now that fear is not there.'
In the wake of the recent hostilities, both sides have moved from weapons to words, with India dispatching several delegations to visit more than 30 capitals across the world. A similar effort by Pakistan is set to start on Jun 2.
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.
'This strike has certainly enhanced your image.' 'Otherwise, people would have called you a damp squib, capable of doing nothing except talking big.'
It is important for India to pay close attention to both the tone and substance of authoritative remarks coming out of Pakistan, explains former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
The people cited above said the Indians were taken away for questioning and it is not unusual under the current circumstances.
'We've moved from thousands killed yearly in Jammu and Kashmir to 127 last year.' 'Cross-border terrorism in Kashmir is being solved. We are winning it.'
'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.'
'We are too important to want to be paired with Pakistan but too intensely connected to it to successfully detach ourselves,' asserts Aakar Patel.
'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.
'...and the country should be impoverished completely.' 'Once this is done, the political class would take over and then play a part in real democracy where the army is under the control of the government, not vice-versa.'
'Every decision India makes along the LoC, it must also consider implications along the LAC.'
'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.
Shah, in a video that has gone viral on Twitter, said every Indian Muslim must introspect if they want 'reform and modernity' in the religion or live with dated 'barbarian' values.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said the 2008 Mumbai terror attack marked a turning point in relations with Pakistan when Indians collectively felt that such behaviour from a neighbouring country could no longer be tolerated. Speaking at Charotar University of Science and Technology, Jaishankar acknowledged India's transformation under Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the last decade, while Pakistan has remained unchanged, continuing with what he termed as its "bad habits."
'India won't take anything from Pakistan lying down.'
'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.'
The officials said the freed Taliban leaders include Sheikh Abdur Rahim and Mawlawi Abdur Rashid, who had served as the insurgent group's governors of Kunar and Nimroz provinces respectively during the Taliban administration before it was deposed by the US-led forces in 2001.
'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.'
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 they are a terror organisation, why are you (GoI) talking to them? If they are not a terror organisation, why are you banning their bank accounts. Why are you not recognizing their government? Make up your mind," he said.
Mamundzay was appointed by the previous Ashraf Ghani government and he has been operating as the Afghan envoy even after the Taliban came to power in August 2021.
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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