More than a hundred U.S troops have been sent to Lashkargah to help prevent the Taliban from overrunning the capital of Afghanistan’s Helmand province, in what is thought to be the first U.S deployment to the embattled city since foreign troops withdrew in 2014, the Guardian reported on Monday. Since late July, the Taliban have seized new territory across Helmand, defying a series of about 30 U.S airstrikes, and raising concern of an attack on…
Posts published in “Day: August 25, 2016”
The task team assigned to probe the fall of Dahna-e-Ghori district of Baghlan, last week, said on Tuesday that preliminary findings show the Taliban reportedly infiltrated the area without facing retaliation from security forces. The task team said that it will refer its findings to the president in a few days – once their investigations into the fall of the district have been finalized. “There was sufficient forces deployed in the district and no fighting…
KARACHI: Pakistan is considered to be the main country through which narcotics produced in Afghanistan are transported to the rest of the world and Karachi is a key point on the drug supply routes, a senior official of the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) has said. Speaking to journalists about the World Drug Report on Tuesday, Cesar Guedes said this year the number of adults who were dependent on drugs had increased…
CHAMAN: The Pak-Afghan border in border town of Chaman remained closed for sixth consecutive day here on Tuesday. The border was closed after Afghan demonstrators burnt Pakistan National Flag on last Thursday. We cannot tolerate slogans against our country and burning our national flag, a Pakistani official deployed at border gate said. Thousands of people and containers mounted trailers stood at the Pak-Afghan border in Chaman. NATO supplies and cross border trade was also suspended.…
The writer is a former federal secretary and minister. ANALYSING everything in its correct perspective is a great gift; the loss of perspective is akin to losing one’s way in a forest. Keeping perspective helps one walk on the straight and narrow path. Ordinary citizens normally give undeserved credit to their governments for their actions and decisions, assuming that they are the outcomes of careful considerations. The word ‘minister’ (or wazir) conjures up the image…
ISLAMABAD – Pakistan and China aim to further cement defence ties as Pakistan finds itself amid tension with India, the United States and Afghanistan. The Foreign Office said yesterday, Pakistan and China held the seventh round of Strategic Dialogue in Beijing. This was the ‘Seventh Round of Strategic Dialogue’ between Pakistan and China. Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry led the Pakistani delegation, while the Chinese side was led by Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for…
China ramps up peripheral diplomacy as disputes arise: By Bai Tiantian in Global Times, Aug 24, 2016
China’s peripheral diplomacy this year may look more complicated with the South China Sea ruling and the deployment of a US defense shield on the Korean Peninsula, but the overall situation remains under control, analysts said. “It may be too early to draw any conclusions on how things will pan out, as we are yet to see what effect the G20 will have, but the situation this year is definitely more complicated than in previous…
South Korean media may have misinterpreted the recent entry of Chinese military planes into the overlapping areas of the two countries’ air defense identification zones (ADIZ) as part of China’s drills in the Sea of Japan, experts said. But they added the long-distance drills near South Korea’s and Japan’s sensitive locations reflect the Chinese military’s growing capabilities. The Chinese military’s official newspaper, the PLA Daily, reported on Saturday that Chinese bomber jets flew over the…
China will reorganise more than half of its 1.55 million land force troops, phasing out its army corps as it tries to mould a more nimble fighting force, sources familiar with the military said, adding that strong internal resistance to the change was expected. Some of the existing 18 Army Corps will be turned into 25 to 30 divisions, they told the South China Morning Post. The size of a corp varies from 30,000 to…
BEIJING — An adviser to the United Nations has sharply criticized President Xi Jinping’s crackdown on dissent in China, warning on Tuesday that the Communist Party’s tight grip on civil society was undermining basic rights and risking mass unrest. The adviser, Philip G. Alston, said that the party’s dominance of the legal system had left Chinese citizens with few avenues to complain about issues like pollution and inequality. He dismissed the process for filing grievances…