As the western forces prepare to leave Afghanistan in the coming year, India stands at a crossroads where it remains keen to preserve its interests in Afghanistan but has refused to step up its role as a regional security provider. New Delhi needs to recognise that there is no short-cut to major power status, says Harsh V Pant
Modi on Thursday spoke to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and offered his condolences over the loss of lives in the Kabul guesthouse sieg
'US citizens who are at the Abbey Gate, East Gate, or North Gate now should leave immediately,' the statement said, without further detail, reported The New York Times.
Top Afghanistan footballer Zohib Islam Amiri has joined Dempo Sports Club till the end of the 2013-14 season.
India named a road in the national capital after the slain Afghan war hero, Ahmad Shah Massoud, the first such honour extended to a leader from that country.
The Second Regional Economic Conference on Afghanistan begins in New Delhi on November 18.
An Afghan women's rights campaigner and a Palestinian peace activist have been named winners of a United Nations award on tolerance and non-violence instituted in memory of Mahatma Gandhi.
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai arrived in Islamabad on Thursday on a two-day state visit for bilateral talks and to attend a tri-lateral summit of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan that will focus on the regional security situation, officials said.
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 terror attack may lead to a further exodus of Afghan Sikhs from the country. On Sunday, the day after the Kabul attack, India reportedly approved 111 emergency visas for Afghan Sikhs.
The world is seeing an "explosion" in seizures of power by force and military coups are back, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told world leaders on Tuesday, lamenting that geopolitical divisions are undermining international cooperation as he called for strengthening global governance and re-igniting multilateralism.
China may accord recognition to the new government in Kabul at an early opportunity, predicts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar
Notably, Pakistan had previously denied the permission of President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Modi to use Pakistan's airspace thrice to travel to foreign countries in 2019 after India abrogated Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir.
Though the Taliban have mercilessly targeted CIA's spies, locals living in the desperately poor border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan still provide information to the American agency to earn some money, reports Tahir Ali
'It's waging an offensive with no seeming precedent.' 'The fact that it's now entering cities, as opposed to remaining massed around their perimeters, is a game changer.'
According to Amar Kant Jha, SDPO, Katihar, the matter came to light on Monday when one of the foreign nationals, named Ghulam, visited the police for some work and when asked about his own identity, divulged that he was a resident of Afghanistan.
At least 250 people have died amid massive avalanches and flooding in Afghanistan.
'It was a mission undertaken in darkness in every sense -- literally, because Afghanistan had no electricity at that time; and, metaphorically because Delhi historically dealt only with the Pashtuns of Afghanistan and the foreign ministry's vast archives had nothing to offer on the culture and politics of the northern tribes in the Hindu Kush.'
Having major stakes in peace and development of Afghanistan, India is expected to press the world not to think about exit from there at a multilateral conference on the war-ravaged nation to be held in London on Thursday.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan announced on Monday that his government will allow India to send a humanitarian shipment of 50,000 metric tonnes of wheat to neighbouring Afghanistan through its territory after finalisation of the transit modalities.
The United States is going to retain a laser focus on its counterterrorism mission in Afghanistan, President Joe Biden said on Friday, and warned the Taliban of a forceful response to any attack on American forces or disruption of its operations at the Kabul airport.
Afghanistan will be going to the World Twenty20 in West Indies to do more than just meet their heroes -- they want to beat them, teenage wicketkeeper Mohammad Shahzad warned. The Afghans, who qualified for their first major ICC tournament earlier this month, have been drawn with the current top two Test-playing nations, India and South Africa, for the first round of the April 30-May 16 tournament.
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 attacker, who is believed to be an Afghan national, has been arrested by the French police.
Pakistan government on Friday sought the early hearing of LeT operations commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi's case in the supreme court, a day after the 2008 Mumbai terror attack mastermind was remanded to 14-day judicial custody for the abduction of an Afghan national.
Not disregarding the initial support given by Pakistan, Afghanistan Cricket Board CEO Shafiq Stanikzai says the BCCI has played a bigger role in the rapid rise of the game in the strife-torn nation.
If New Delhi finds itself out in the cold in Afghanistan, both the Congress-led UPA and BJP-led NDA have only themselves to blame. Each has been in power for a full decade from 2001, without reaching out to the Taliban, points out Ajai Shukla.
A helpless White House on Friday implored WikiLeaks, which is reportedly in possession of 15,000 more classified documents on the Afghanistan war, not to post any more of the records, saying US national security and life of its soldiers and Afghan nationals were at risk.
On January 30, a suicide bombing at a mosque in the Peshawar Police Lines area claimed the lives of at least 101 people
The United States still intends to withdraw some 33,000 troops from Afghanistan by next year, US President Barack Obama told US Congress.
Centurion Rishabh Pant (118) led India to a spectacular 104-run win over Afghanistan to progress to the final of the Under-19 tri-series One-day cricket tournament in Kolkata on Friday.
'We have tried to get in touch with the embassy as well as the Ministry of External Affairs. We have not heard from them yet but I am confident that the government must be putting efforts for our safe and quick evacuationfrom Kabul'
The US president alleged that the countries were not doing enough in the war-ravaged country and that they were taking advantage of the United States.
Contradicting Asif's claim, the office of the Afghan National Security Adviser Mohammad Haneef Atmar issued a statement saying there was no mention or reference of India or an Indian citizen during his meeting with the Pakistani foreign minister on September 21 in New York.
Four Indians and an American, were killed during the five-hour long siege that ended early Thursday morning.
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.
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.
Afghanistan has invited India to broaden its engagement in that country, including in enhancing the capabilities of its security forces, but made it clear that it would resist attempt by anybody to undermine the destiny of its people, in an apparent reference to Pakistan.
The love for the festival of colours is not restricted to just songs and moments in the movies. The various hues of colours are used in film titles for dramatic effect too.
Stating that the Al Qaida was able to establish an unprecedented safe haven along the Pakistan-Afghan border in the past 18 months, the Central Intelligence Agency chief has warned that the situation there presented a clear danger to the two nations, as also to the United States. General Micheal Hayden termed the 2006 peace deal between Pakistan government and the pro-Taliban tribals in North Waziristan as absolutely disastrous.
