Afghanistan intelligence officials believe that terror outfit Lashkar-e-Tayiba planned and carried out the terror attack in Kabul last week that killed 16 people, including six Indians.The Afghan Taliban have already claimed responsibility for the attack, during which a car bomb was triggered off and terrorists wearing suicide vests raided hotels frequented by Indians and foreigners, targeting the visitors.
The Taliban has reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack on the presidential palace in Kabul where a press conference was scheduled by President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday. Multiple explosions and gunfire were reported near the presidential palace, which is the site for several important organisations.
Intense rocket barrage prevented a plane carrying United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt from landing at the Kabul airport on Tuesday and the aircraft was forced to be diverted to Bagram air base.
According to reports, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has talked to Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna as well as his Pakistani counterpart, Shah Mehmood Qureshi on the telephone to raise the prospect of another "talk about talks".
China opposed to "double standards" on counter-terrorism operations.
The blast tore through a market building across the street from the heavily fortified embassy compound, leaving rubble and debris strewn across the road, where the Afghan Interior Ministry is also located.
Three of them are believed to have died in "friendly fire" by Afghan security forces. Another staffer was burnt in a fire that was caused by exploding grenades, the Board of Inquiry revealed.
As the second Hamid Karzai government settles down to business in Afghanistan, India must seriously focus on long-term intervention and assistance in stabilising one of its most important neighbours, a variety of Afghan and Indian politicians, analysts and diplomats said in Kabul and New Delhi.
Foreign policy is always a work in progress and ups and downs are built into foreign policy process. What is permanent is national interest. Hopefully, this year, which will also witness general elections in the country, will also clear clouds in the foreign policy horizon, observes Rup Narayan Das.
The latest Taliban suicide attacks in Kabul that killed up to nine Indians could be an attempt to "provoke" India into some kind of response in Afghanistan, which may "complicate" Pakistan's strategy on the war-torn country, according to a leading US think tank.
The embassy said it was 'cognisant' that some may attempt to characterise this move as an internal conflict, allegedly involving diplomats who switched allegiance to the Taliban, adding "that this decision is a result of broader changes in policy and interests".
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.
Former Afghanistan President Burhanuddin Rabbani has been killed in explosion at his house in Kabul on Tuesday evening. He was leading the leading the country's efforts to talk peace with the Taliban.
The 19 August attack on the British Council compound in Kabul had the necessary SIR elements -- Surprise, Intricacy and Retribution.
The bodies of six Indians killed in the Taliban attack in Kabul were flown to New Delhi in a special aircraft. Eight other Indians who were injured in the terror strike on two guest houses in the Afghan capital were also brought to the city in the plane.
The Talibs appear in complete control of Afghanistan days after American troops left the country.
India today said none of its nationals was killed in a Taliban attack on a heavily fortified luxury hotel in Afghanistan's capital. Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi had said that four foreigners -- one each from New Zealand, Canada, Pakistan and India -- were killed in the attack on Serena Hotel which is used by UN staff and foreign diplomats.
The slaying of the 41-year-old communications engineer working with a Bahrain firm has further shattered their faith in law and order in Afghanistan.
After a 16-year gap, Indian Airlines will start operating on the Delhi-Kabul sector from March 27 this year giving an impetus to the new momentum in relations between India and Afghanistan.
The Taliban have been forcing women to cover themselves up since returning to power in August.
American intelligence agencies have for the first time directly linked the suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul to Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence and indicated that it might have been authorised by the top officials as those involved in assisting militants were not renegades, a media report said in New York on Friday.
Amid threats of fresh attacks on Indian assets in Afghanistan following the deadly suicide bombing at its embassy, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon arrived in Kabul on Sunday to discuss ways to revamp security to thwart designs of the Taliban and its mentor Inter Services Intelligence.
Terming his 2-day visit to Kabul as "productive", Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Monday that India was working hand-in-hand to accerelarate the reconstruction tempo of the war-ravaged country.
There has been a sharp increase in acts of terrorism in Afghanistan since the new Pakistan government assumed office in Islamabad in March.
According to one American analyst, the "house that was struck was owned by a top aide to Sirajuddin Haqqani," who is now the interior minister in the Taliban government in Kabul.
Speaking about the issue in India in March 2012 at a media conclave, Kissinger defended his use of unparliamentary language while referring to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
October 15 marks two months since the Taliban captured Kabul and thereafter all of Afghanistan. How has life changed for the Talib in these weeks?
An imminent concern for India is the fact that disenchanted al-Qaeda cadres may shift their allegiance to the Islamic State and its regional affiliate Islamic State -Khorasan Province.
Pakistan's army chief General Raheel Sharif will visit Afghanistan tomorrow to meet the new leaders there and discuss security issues, including the thorny one of Pakistani Taliban militants hiding there.
Women petition the Taliban. Talibs patrol Kabul's streets. Afghans flee into Pakistan.
Zawahri's long balcony visits gave the CIA an opportunity for a clear missile shot that could avoid collateral damage.
Afghan security forces have killed all the Taliban attackers who unleashed a wave of coordinated suicide attacks targetting diplomatic area, NATO bases and the Parliament in Kabul, a top official said on Monday.
'Holding on to superstardom is far more difficult than the struggle to get there.'
The Taliban's remarks came after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed a $25 million development aid package for Afghanistan in the Union Budget.
Four Lashkar-e-Tayiba gunmen, who stormed into the Kabul guest houses packed with Indian officials, came clad in burqa to hide their strapped explosives and appeared to have a detailed knowledge including names of their intended Indian victims.
The Freelancer has been made with workman-like efficiency, but the subject of Islamic terrorism could do with a break, points out Deepa Gahlot.
In a severe indictment of Pakistan's links with terror groups, top United States military commander on Thursday said the Inter-Services Intelligence provided support to the Haqqani terror network in carrying out the recent attack on the country's embassy in Kabul.
The group along with three copies of the Sikh scripture, Guru Granth Sahib, was airlifted from Kabul to Dushanbe by a military transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force on Monday.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Saturday said no Indian embassy employee in Kabul wanted to come back fearing terror attacks but government would consider transfer requests made on family grounds.
In New Delhi, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai will sign the first-ever strategic agreement with India. Sheela Bhatt analyses the importance of Karzai's visit and India's budding relationship with its neighbour.
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