In South Asia, the intelligence community assesses that the political and security situation in Afghanistan will almost certainly deteriorate through 2018.
'Terrorists have targeted US diplomats and diplomatic facilities in the past, and information suggests they continue to do so'
Taking part in the first meeting of Foreign Ministers of the neighbouring countries on Afghanistan, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China will provide Afghanistan with 200 million yuan ($31 million) worth of grains, winter supplies, vaccines and medicines as per its requirements, official media in Beijing reported.
The number is an all time high for the state with south Kashmir emerging as one of the main hubs, providing cadres to terrorist groups.
All the terrorist camps and around 15 launch pads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir "are full", according to top army commander Lt Gen B S Raju, who anticipates an increase in infiltration attempts from across the border this summer to replenish the diminishing terrorist cadres in Jammu and Kashmir.
'The Emergency was a temporary affair. It was withdrawn after 20 months.' 'But we are in this situation for the last 10 years.' 'If the Emergency was jhatka, this is halal, slow killing.'
The Indian Army is effecting a major "reorientation" and "rebalancing" of its troops in the strategically sensitive areas along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Arunachal Pradesh, with a top general saying its overall combat readiness in the region is of a "very high order."
The NSCN-IM is no longer the force it used to be. Once the 'de facto government' of Magaland, it gradually reduced to an extortion racket. But missteps by the Centre could give it a new lease of life.
The government on Tuesday said four youth from Maharashtra have disappeared after leaving for Mosul from Baghdad in Iraq.
'If Trudeau chooses to repeat his allegations in his UN speech on Friday, it would create a whole new escalation.'
'A resurgent Jaish could be a reflection of the Pakistani security establishment's view that with the region moving ever closer to a post-US Afghanistan, it is time to redirect attention to Kashmir.'
The best, wisest, and fairest next step in strengthening our own cause is to restore statehood to Jammu & Kashmir and allow the resumption of robust political activity. That's a box that remains unchecked on the Modi government's report card as we approach the fourth anniversary of Kashmir's Constitutional shift, notes Shekhar Gupta.
Manipur needs an integrated politico, military, socio-economic approach, says Sanjeev Nayyar.
'It is time for all Indians to understand the truth that led to a 10-year long bloodbath in Punjab and not attempt to glorify the terrorists under the garb of human rights violations or scratch old wounds,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd), on the 30th anniversary of Operation Bluestar.
In a blistering attack against the BJP over the violence in Manipur, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday alleged that its politics had "murdered Bharat Mata" in the northeastern state and termed members of the ruling party "traitors".
The spark for the raging violence was lit by demonstrations by tribal groups against a move to grant the majority Meiteis the Scheduled Tribe status, which the residents of the hills had been enjoying for decades since Independence.
'Throughout the nearly 20-year US-led war, State sponsorship from Pakistan has been a constant.'
Pakistan is a 'haven' for several Islamist terror groups and successive Pakistani governments are widely believed to have supported some outfits.
There are three things you never do in a small North East state: Undermine local leaders, divide and rule, push homogenisation, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
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.
At least 23 people were killed and 55 others injured on Sunday when a powerful bomb ripped through a crowded used clothes market in Pakistan's restive northwest tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
Addressing the UNSC High Level Open Debate on 'Peacebuilding and sustaining peace: Diversity, state building and the search for peace', Muraleedharan said the expectations of the international community on Afghanistan, including on combating terrorism, are set out clearly in the UN Security Council Resolution 2593, that was adopted under India's Presidency of the 15-nation Council in August.
The Afghan Taliban is struggling to find a successor to slain chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour.
'If the Kukis and Meiteis are the warring groups, then we need to find space for a third group which can mediate between the two.'
The Union government has decided to crack down on the operations of the Manipur-based Revolutionary Peoples' Front. The National Investigation Agency will soon draw up a comprehensive plan to neutralise the various modules of this group. The Revolutionary Peoples' Front, which enjoys strong links with extremist groups based in Bangladesh, is becoming a menace for the central government.
The cross-LoC surgical strike was carried out by the Indian army after "specific and very definite" inputs about terrorists at launch pads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir planning attacks in this country, the government said on Friday.
There is the problem of regions in the North East being theatre for power-play by nations with borders and influences converging in those parts, which in turn requires a sizable presence of the armed forces, notes Shyam G Menon.
Strongly reacting to All India Congress Committee vice president Rahul Gandhi's purported remarks that Asom Gana Parishad was in power for a term allegedly with the backing of insurgents, the Asom Gana Parishad on Friday said it would initiate legal action him.
Assam police have arrested a local TV channel reporter for allegedly having links with the banned National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Sangbijit faction) group. Jaikhnong Brahma, a Kokrajhar-based reporter for Guwahati-based satellite TV channel, News Live was arrested on Tuesday evening from his residence.
The Army says such a move will seriously jeopardise surveillance over the country's sensitive border with China.
From now on, the Taliban will be responsible for the "honour, wealth and preservation" of Afghanistan's people, Ghani said.
Assam's new Director General of Police, Khagen Sarma on Friday said that Pakistan's spy agency Inter Services intelligence and other external forces are behind United Liberation Front of Asom (anti-talks) faction leader Paresh Baruah's efforts to form a common force comprising all northeastern insurgent groups to fight Indian security forces
The Bharatiya Janata Party is ahead in 20 seats in Manipur, with Chief Minister N Biren Singh leading by a handsome margin of more than 16,000 votes against his nearest Congress rival in Heingang constituency, Election Commission data showed.
'The next war will be fought by China-Pakistan against India and we have to fully be prepared. We must read the writing on the wall.'
The Assam government stated that it had no abjection to granting bail to the militant leaders in the interest of materialising peace talks with the outfit which had surrendered arms over a year ago.
Afghan foreign minister Rabbani said Afghanistan and Pakistan can work on the issue of the trust deficit.
The appointments committee of the cabinet headed by the prime minister had on October 1 issued the order for the appointment of Singh who has service till December 2024.
'Hatred increases with every killing.' 'It sets one family against another.' 'The sooner it is stopped, the better.'
The inquiry will focus on the "intelligence" and the "circumstances" on which Saturday's operation was based on.
The Centre is likely to rush additional paramilitary forces to trouble-torn areas along the Assam-Nagaland border to maintain peace and prevent the clashes between Naga and Karbi tribals from spreading.
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