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.
Aziz said that Pakistan-US relations had come to a standstill in 2011 because of incidents of WikiLeaks, Raymond Davis, Abbottabad operation, Datta Khel and Salala.
A top Pakistani diplomat in the United States on Saturday said that Islamabad was aware that the peace deal with Taliban in the country's troubled Swat valley would not work but went ahead with it as a tactical move. Pakistan's ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani, in a television interview, said even President Asif Ali Zardari knew about its result from the very beginning of the deal. He also said that such strategy could be repeated in the future.
Pakistan, which has propped up the new Taliban leadership, would be keen to use its influence over the group to neutralise India's presence in the region.
Peace and reconciliation cannot go forward in an atmosphere of terror, India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin said in the United Nations on Tuesday.
Pakistan will attack al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden the moment it has reliable intelligence information about his whereabouts, Pakistan's envoy to the United States Hussain Haqqani said on Friday.Haqqani also said he was confident that Pakistan could help foil any al Qaeda plans to attack the United States, although he did not know of any right now. The envoy is pressing for more cooperation with the United States on intelligence.
India'Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been congratulated for his speedy diplomacy and his talks with Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif. However, academic Christine Fair and former Pakistan ambassador to US Husain Haqqani dismiss the meeting, calling it merely a photo-op and an exercise in futility. Aziz Haniffa reports.
It was both a defiant and defensive Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's Ambassador to the US, who in appearing on the Sunday news talk shows on television, and asked to explain India's accusing finger at Pakistan for the deadly terrorist attacks in Mumbai, began pointing to the 9/11 terrorist coming from countries that couldn't be held responsible for the attacks and also terrorist training camps in the United States itself.
The Pakistan government has, however, put the JuD on the list of groups being closely watched by the officials.
India may seek US' help for extradition of Dawood Ibrahim, the mastermind of 1993 Mumbai blasts, as they vowed to make "joint and concerted efforts" to dismantle safe havens for terror and criminal networks like Lashkar-e-Tayiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, D-company, Al-Qaeda and Haqqani network.
WWhat Pakistan faces in the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan is virulent insurgency and terrorism, fuelled by its association with Al Qaeda
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.
"I think it's clear to me that the ISI has connections with terrorist groups," General Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
"We have removed the leader of an organisation that has continued to plot against and unleash attacks on American and coalition forces, to wage war against the Afghan people, and align itself with extremist groups like Al-Qaeda," the US president said in a statement.
'The worst case scenario for Pakistan is a full-scale Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.' 'Pakistani militants would be inspired and emboldened and seek to replicate the Taliban's successes in Pakistan.'
Ananya Agarwal, who led the Indian delegation to the UNESCO General Conference being held in Paris, told the panel that Pak is home to all shades of darkness; from extremist ideologies and darker powers of radicalisation to the darkest manifestations of terrorism.
The official was quick to point out that China has been playing a more helpful role in terms of encouraging better relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan. "It is taking a more active role in this regard."
'Pakistan's leaders have made a serious mistake in describing India as an existential threat and a permanent enemy. If there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies in international relations, then neither Afghanistan nor India should be Pakistan's permanent enemies either,' Husain Haqqani, former Pakistani ambassador envoy to the United States, tells Rediff.com's Aziz Haniffa in a fascinating interview.
India strongly condemned the terror attack, saying targeting of a religious place in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak reflects the "diabolical mindset" of the perpetrators and their backers.
The US were ready to mount an operation inside Pakistan, similar to the covert raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
Hit by yet another suicide bomb attack on its mission in Jalalabad, India on Saturday said "terror machines" that operate from "beyond the borders" was the main threat to the security of Afghanistan and refused to be deterred from its commitment to assist the war-torn country.
Tired of the alleged "double game" being played by Islamabad, American lawmakers have announced to hold a Congressional hearing next week to discuss whether Pakistan is a "friend or foe" of the US in the war on terror.
The terrorists had spent around Rs six lakh on procurement of explosives and the Maruti Eeco car used in the attack, the NIA said in its chargesheet.
With Intelligence reports suggesting Pakistan-based terrorists planning strikes in India, Home Minister Rajnath Singh attacked the neighbouring country for "not mending its ways" despite being given a befitting reply many times.
Currently placed on the FATF'S 'grey list', Pakistan has been scrambling in recent months to avoid being added to a list of countries deemed non-compliant with anti-money laundering and terrorist financing regulations by the FATF.
Pakistan, the report said, has played an active, and by many accounts, a negative role in Afghan affairs for decades.
Pak is taking some positive steps...but a lot more needs to be done, says the State Department Spokesperson.
Even as there is a sense of positivity over Indo-Pak ties after the outcome of Pakistan polls, a former Pakistani diplomat believes a regime change is unlikely to bring any substantial shift in Islamabad's approach.
Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala wondered why Prime Minister Modi was 'silent' on his 'India First' policy as President Trump talked of 'America First'.
'The problem with India and Pakistan can be solved by Pakistan by ceasing its support for Islamist terrorists operating in India, letting go of its baseless demands upon Kashmir, ceasing its support for terrorists attacking India assets in Afghanistan.'
"I don't think that we have seen any evidence of efforts by India to directly undermine Pakistani national security. This is something that the Pakistanis fear but I don't think that we should let US policy be driven by Pakistani fear," Lisa Curtis of the Heritage Foundation said in response to questions from lawmakers who raised Pakistani concerns in this regard.
Pakistan's powerful spy agency Inter Services Intelligence regards the United States as its "worst enemy" and Islamabad's claim that it is cooperating with Washington is a sham to extract billions of dollars in aid, jailed Pakistani doctor Shakeel Afridi who helped the CIA trace Osama bin Laden has said.
A Congressional Committee in its budgetary proposals for the year 2013 has prohibited economic and security assistance to Pakistan till it co-operates with the United States in the fight against terrorism and takes action against groups such as Haqqani Network, Taliban, Al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Tayiba.
'Of all of the branches and networks of ISIS, ISIS-K is certainly one of those of most concern.'
At least 16 militants, including some foreign fighters, were killed when the United States drones targeted the compound of a militant commander believed to have links with the Haqqani network and the Al Qaeda in northwest Pakistan on Thursday.
Possibility of yet another Mumbai-style attack in India cannot be ruled out and such a threat will arise if the Taliban or Haqqani network succeed in seizing large parts of Southern Afghanistan, a veteran Indian diplomat has said.
The US has been in discussions with Pakistan but there has been not a 'sufficient amount of action' from it against terrorists.
'No one knows Pak and understands Pak better than China,' Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.
The US, the official said, is monitoring the situation carefully in Pakistan and expects some progress.
Unless Pakistan's military leaders awaken to the dangers that lie ahead from the Islamist extremist threat, it may eventually overwhelm the Pakistani state, warns Lisa Curtis
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