'The CBI did a wonderful job of tracking down the killers, but at the end of the day, all the hard work went for a toss.' 'If we had caught them alive, the operation would have been successful completely.'
Sources close to the top BJP leadership tell me that Tharoor has already had secret meetings with the BJP's top brass and is waiting patiently to make his next move, reports Ramesh Menon.
'Fears in Washington began to intensify when it was realised that subsequent Pakistani and Indian attacks on major military facilities -- which were significant in terms of geographic scope and intensity -- could rapidly take both sides to where neither actually wanted to go.' 'The US objective was to stop the fighting as soon as possible. Everything else was secondary.'
'Will this near-war, India's strongest military response so far, buy India another seven years of deterrence?' asks Shekhar Gupta.
Pakistan has offered to join any neutral and transparent probe into the Pahalgam terrorist attack that killed 26 people. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also warned India against any attempt to stop, reduce or divert the flow of water belonging to Pakistan, saying any such action would be responded to with full force and might. Sharif said Pakistan has always condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and has endured immense loss of over 90,000 casualties and economic losses exceeding USD 600 billion. He also reiterated Pakistan's support for the right of self-determination of the Kashmiri people.
The unexpected 10-day break has left both the RCB and the KKR with different goals to achieve and common challenges to hurdle over.
Lee Jae-myung's decisive victory in South Korea's snap presidential election marks a major political shift driven by public backlash against authoritarian, with significant implications for domestic reform and the future of the US-South Korea alliance, observes Dr Rajaram Panda.
The launch of the first-ever direct train service from Delhi to Kashmir would be a big turning point in the Valley's mood and its integration with India. He had to thwart it at any cost, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
However, minutes after filing this report, news of ceasefire violations in Srinagar have been reported.
'This strike has certainly enhanced your image.' 'Otherwise, people would have called you a damp squib, capable of doing nothing except talking big.'
Trump made it clear he had no plans to speak with Musk anytime soon, stating, "I'm too busy doing other things," and added, "I have no intention of speaking to him," NBC News reported.
'India has gone some way to meeting its objectives because it has established a deterrent value that Pakistan will have to take into account when it plans future terrorist attacks.'
'Had Haji Pir and/or Skardu been taken, the message would have gone out not just to General Asim Munir and his cohort in the Pakistan army but to the Pakistani people that every terrorist incident in India would lead to substantial loss of territory in PoK.'
He was seeking a new purpose -- something to reignite his passion and spark a personal resurgence. But under the current team management, Kohli felt that he wasn't getting the environment, autonomy, or energy he needed.
Mitchell Starc has reportedly decided against returning to India for the remainder of IPL 2025, dealing a blow to his team Delhi Capitals' prospects of reaching the play-offs.
PBKS-DC game also uncertain, say BCCI Sources
'India enjoys conventional superiority, but nuclear deterrence imposes clear boundaries.'
China has delivered a second advanced submarine to Pakistan, part of a larger deal to bolster the South Asian nation's naval capabilities in the Indian Ocean. The move underscores China's growing influence in the region and its strategic partnership with Pakistan.
Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has warned India of a strong response, saying Pakistan will respond to a "brick with a stone" if India takes any action against Pakistan, amid heightened tensions following the April 22 terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam. Dar alleged that India might have staged the Pahalgam attack to abolish the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) and warned that any attempt by India to interfere with the treaty would be considered an act of war. He also said that Pakistan had no involvement in the Pahalgam incident and is getting support from countries like Saudi Arabia, China, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Hungary.
'If I had to make a call whether to head back to India and finish the tournament, it would be an easy decision. It's a no from me. Lives and safety are the most important thing, not pay cheques.'
The US is currently Earth's most powerful country and a certain latitude of understanding -- a world view -- is popularly expected from its leadership. From a country identified with freedom, constitution, debate, democracy and the likes of Abraham Lincoln even as it had the most powerful military around, the US, following Trump's actions, seemed repositioned as militarily powerful with other qualities secondary, observes Shyam G Menon.
'It is high time that the 'war on terror' is removed from our diplomatic toolbox.' 'Certainly, our parliamentarians have no role in it,' asserts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
A massive anti-Naxal operation involving around 10,000 security personnel along the Chhattisgarh-Telangana border entered its fifth day on Friday, with the Maoists reportedly issuing a statement calling for a halt to the exercise and initiating "peace talks." The statement, circulating on social media, claims that the government is resorting to repression and violence despite the possibility of resolving the issue through dialogue. The operation, considered one of the largest counter-insurgency actions in the Bastar region, involves personnel from various units including the Chhattisgarh police, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), and its elite CoBRA unit. The operation, launched on Monday in the densely forested hills of Karregutta and Durgamgutta along the inter-state border, is aimed at targeting PLGA battalion No. 1, the strongest military formation of the Maoists.
'Pakistan is no longer a front-burner issue for America.'
Reddy alleged that contracts worth thousands of crores were awarded to people close to Modi, who then purchased Rafale aircraft.
The Attari-Wagah border crossing point between India and Pakistan was shut completely on Thursday following a week-long heavy rush of people from either side to cross over after the Union government ordered all Pakistani citizens with short-term visa to leave India in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack, sources said.
At the end of the day, for many worldwide, the ongoing mutual attacks between Israel and Iran would seem a contest devoid of any moral high ground and only a bout between two ordinary adversaries, one that nevertheless risks spinning out of control into a larger conflagration, notes Shyam G Menon.
'Neither are Baloch insurgents capable of breaking up Pakistan, nor has Pakistan learned any lessons from the 1971 debacle that led to the country's dismemberment.'
'We are too important to want to be paired with Pakistan but too intensely connected to it to successfully detach ourselves,' asserts Aakar Patel.
'If Pakistan's army wants to escalate violence in Kashmir, they have an unlimited supply of jihadis they can train and send. That's not an issue for them.'
The escalating military tension between the two nations, a deluge of information, and the inability to sift through fake and real news can significantly affect the psychological well-being of individuals, said mental health experts.
For the first time, the Data Security Council of India assembled a joint task force to source threat intelligence at the origin and ensure coordinated action across the cybersecurity spectrum.
In a year bookended by intractable conflicts and geopolitical fragmentation, India focused on ramping up military prowess by broadly firming up defence procurement worth Rs 4.22 lakh crore even as Indian and Chinese militaries completed pulling back their troops from border face-off points in eastern Ladakh.
China on Monday conducted day-long large-scale military drills aimed at surrounding Taiwan by deploying an aircraft carrier group, besides army, navy, air force and missile forces, in an apparent response to Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te's remarks that Beijing has no authority to represent Taipei.
Delivering the sermon, he said election and "resolution of the Kashmir issue" were two different things.
When the country has been at war, the Opposition has buried its differences with the government, points out Aditi Phadnis.
China's growing military might which is a subject of anxiety among its neighbours appear to be overstated and the emerging giant is still far from developing capabilities that can pose a challenge to a power like the United States, a media report in US said on Saturday.
The exit deadline for Pakistani nationals visiting India on SAARC visas ended on April 26, while for the rest, except those on medical visas, it is set to close on Sunday, April 27 amid escalating tensions between the two countries over the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people.
'We need to raise the costs and consequences for Pakistan. It is long overdue. Our initial surgical strike was effective for about six months. Then, the Balakot strike provided a deterrent for perhaps two to three years. But we cannot operate under the assumption that such limited responses will suffice for decades to come.'
Security experts have warned that using Signal for discussions of this nature violates every established protocol for handling classified information.