A new US intelligence report warns that India and Pakistan's relations remain at risk for nuclear conflict, fueled by terrorism and escalating tensions in the region.
Pakistan's military operation against the Afghan Taliban has reportedly resulted in significant casualties and destruction of infrastructure along the border, prompting calls for de-escalation from the UN.
Pakistani security forces have reportedly killed dozens of Afghan Taliban personnel in overnight operations along the southwestern border, repulsing attacks at multiple locations.
Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has warned that Islamabad will enter into an 'open war' with Kabul if the ongoing peace talks in Istanbul fail, TOLO News reported.
Pakistan launched a retaliatory operation, 'Ghazab lil Haq,' against the Afghan Taliban following alleged border attacks, resulting in reported casualties and destruction of Taliban infrastructure.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif chaired a high-level meeting to review regional and internal security in light of recent events in Iran and Afghanistan.
'If this region destabilises, then we are not far away. This region should not destabilise.'
By appearing to privilege ideological affinity over strategic balance, India risks eroding the trust painstakingly built across West Asia. Once the perception takes hold that India's friendship is conditional and transactional, rebuilding credibility will be difficult, warns Amberish K Diwanji.
'In such a scenario, Iran could proclaim itself victor, rebuild, re-enforce its diminished regional proxies to further destabilise neighbouring nations and take control of the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz.'
A senior Afghan interim government official on Monday confirmed that strikes in the Afghanistan provinces of Paktika and Khost along the Pakistan border have taken place.
India told the UN Security Council that it calls for a pragmatic engagement with the Taliban, underlining that a focus on only punitive measures will ensure a 'business as usual' approach.
'The killing of players and civilians is not honour -- it is the deepest disgrace. Long live Afghanistan.' Afghan Cricketers Unite Behind ACB After Fatal Airstrike.
Afghan Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi met Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) members on Monday to discuss opportunities in his country, especially in the mining sector. The Taliban, who now control Afghanistan, is seeking to repair its ties with New Delhi, and is hopeful of Indian public and private sectors increasing investments in the mining and power sector, and greater trade and commerce.
An ISIS-Khorasan planner was killed in a "counterterrorism" operation conducted by US military forces in the Nangahar province, a day after a terror attack in Kabul killed scores of people including 13 US troops.
Following Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan's Barmal district of Paktika province, which left 46 dead and six injured, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan on Wednesday summoned the Charge d'Affaires of the Pakistani Embassy in Kabul.
'I noticed a nine-year-old child hugging another child every few minutes.' 'The two were sisters and were playing in their village when an armed gang attacked their village and set fire to it.' 'They hid together, only to witness their mother and father being killed.' 'Now, the older child is constantly comforting the younger one.'
The US intelligence assessment highlights Pakistan's near-certain procurement of weapons of mass destruction-applicable goods from foreign suppliers, primarily through Chinese support.
An explosion was reported in the capital city of Afghanistan. Sputnik reported citing local sources that the blast was the result of a rocket landing on a residential building near the Kabul airport and that it had killed a child,
Afghan refugees in New Delhi protest against the Taliban and Pakistan's interference in Afghanistan.
The US spent $1.5 million a day since 2001 fighting the opium war in Afghanistan. After hundreds of airstrikes failed to curtail the Taliban's $200-million-a-year opium trade, the US military quietly ended the campaign when the Trump administration officials engaged in direct peace talks with the Taliban, notes Atanu Biswas.
Afghan Taliban forces fired on multiple Pakistani border posts in the Upper Kurram district, killing one Frontier Constabulary (FC) soldier and injuring 11 others. The incident came after Pakistan targeted terrorist positions in Afghanistan to punish the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) militants. Pakistani forces retaliated, inflicting heavy casualties on the Afghan side.
'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.'
In a major crackdown to eliminate the terrorists' sanctuaries, Afghanistan has carried out three air strikes within a week in Kunar province, bordering Pakistan, inflicting heavy casualties on Lashkar-e-Tayiba terror group.
'If they aim to remain aligned with the public sentiment, as any democratic government should, then they must respond. Why else would the prime minister have cut short his visit to Saudi Arabia? And why would he have instructed the home minister himself to travel to Srinagar to assess the situation firsthand? This suggests that something is indeed being planned. I am quite certain of that, although the exact form it will take remains to be seen.'
The deadly American air strike on a hospital in northern Afghan city of Kunduz that killed 22 people was caused primarily by "human error" and officers closely associated with the incident have been suspended, a top US general based in Afghanistan said on Wednesday.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday held wide ranging discussions with Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian in Tehran and their discussion focused on the long term framework for India's involvement with the strategically vital Chabahar port and the North-South connectivity project.
Nearly 200 fighters at an Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent terror training camp in the Af-Pak border region were killed in a recent attack by the US and Afghan commandos.
At least 54 suspected militants belonging to a pro-Taliban outfit, including its spokesman, were killed on Wednesday when Pakistani fighter jets pounded their hideouts and troops clashed with the insurgents in the volatile northwest tribal region near the Afghan border.
Afghan foreign minister Rabbani said Afghanistan and Pakistan can work on the issue of the trust deficit.
Hundreds of Afghan protesters, including women, took to the streets of Kabul on Tuesday, chanting 'death to Pakistan' and denouncing Islamabad's interference in Afghanistan and airstrikes by its jets in Panjshir province in support of the Taliban, according to a media report.
The US military engaged the C-RAM missile defence, but, according to ABC News, it is still unclear whether all of the rockets were successfully intercepted.
The United States conducted an airstrike on Wednesday against the Taliban in Nahr-e Saraj of Helmand district of Afghanistan, the US military spokesperson said on Wednesday. This was a "defensive strike" to disrupt the attacks by Taliban, the Pajhowk Afghan News reported citing the spokesperson.
'Nine missiles from India had been pointed towards Pakistan, to be launched any time that day'
A US drone killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri at a house in Kabul, where he had been living with his family, on Saturday.
Pakistan, in recent months, has been increasingly frustrated by the Taliban government's reluctance to eliminate the terrorist groups, including the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
A realistic assessment will tell us that not much has changed between India and Pakistan; the relationship remains as fraught as before with little prospect of reconciliation, notes Ajai Shukla.
Yasin was also responsible for the 2009 attack on a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore.
Three Pakistani soldiers were killed and another three injured when North Aatlantic Treaty Organisation helicopters shelled a Pakistani outpost in the restive tribal belt bordering Afghanistan on Thursday, in the fourth cross-border attack into Pakistan in less than a week.
Robust military preparedness along the entire perimeter of our nation is the only iron-clad permanent guarantee for our security, asserts Vivek Gumaste.
