Posts published in “Day: October 20, 2016”

The Taliban delegation demanded the release of prisoners and removal of the group’s leaders from the UN blacklist during the informal talks held in Qatar, it has been reported. The group also demanded that the Taliban group should be identified as a formal movement before they agree to participate in peace talks. The Afghan Taliban officials, based in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, told Reuters that the talks yielded little results. The officials further…

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan has asked the United States to help bring India to the dialogue table amid Washington’s calls for talks between the nuclear-armed neighbours, official sources said. Senior officials at the foreign ministry told The Nation that recent appeals by the US for talks between Pakistan and India were a result of Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts. The officials maintained Pakistan had been pressing Washington to stop India from war-mongering. Last day, US State Department’s Deputy…

The author is an associate research fellow at the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. According to Indian media, some politicians and citizens in the country have recently launched campaigns to boycott Chinese products. They blame China for India’s failure to enter the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), and for Beijing blocking India’s UN bid on sanctioning a commander in Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based military group. Beijing and New Delhi are currently…

ISLAMABAD: Controversy generated by the Dawn story appears to have now become a source of endless tension for civilian and military leadership, as despite repeated rebuttals and censures the issue continues to be the focus of top-level civil-military interactions. Handouts and press releases, issued by both sides, of these official interactions and deliberations have started raising many eyebrows instead of settling the issue. Questions are being raised if all is going well between civil and…

ISLAMABAD: Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif has reportedly made it clear to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif corps commanders – during their recent meeting – emphasised that all characters found involved in leaking the security meeting’s minutes should be exposed. The COAS also informed the premier that action would be taken against all those involved in sharing ‘details’ of the security meeting. Reliable sources said the government had been exerting pressure on one…

ISLAMABAD: The government has accepted a proposal by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to let its operatives take pre-emptive action against individuals and organisations breaching national security under the recently-enacted cyber crime laws. “The ISI wanted a legal cover for action against those allegedly committing online crimes against the state and undermining the national security and we had to agree with the proposal,” disclosed a participant of a crucial meeting held at the Ministry of Interior…

KABUL: Former President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, said the United States has turned a blind eye to terrorist sanctuaries beyond Afghan frontiers. In an interview with Sophie Shevardnadze, a correspondent for the television network RT, the former Afghan president said that Afghanistan is insecure, the Taliban have gained more territory, foreign interferences have increased in the country, but the US and its allies have failed to improve security in Afghanistan and help the Afghan peace…

KABUL: At least 70 Taliban insurgents were killed and 30 others wounded in a series of airstrikes carried out in the western Farah province, security officials said Tuesday. Provincial police chief, Hassan Shah Forugh, said that the strikes were carried out in the province but did not elaborate whether the attacks were carried out by international warplanes. “The airstrikes targeted Taliban hideouts that resulted in the death of 70 and 30 others injured during the…

PESHAWAR: The Wolesi Jirga, or National Assembly, has demanded immediate implementation of the peace agreement that the Afghan government signed with Gulbaddin Hekmatyar’s Hezb-i-Islami (HIA) on September 28. During the recent session of the assembly, some lawmakers said delay in implementing the agreement would create problems and provide time to its opponents to make it fail. Two weeks have already passed since the signing of the agreement, but it is unclear what steps have been…

Hundreds of supporter the First Vice President General Abdul Rashid Dostum picked up arms to declare support following a deadly ambush by the Taliban militants in Faryab province. The supporters of Gen. Dostum chanted support for the First Vice President and announced their support to counter the Taliban-led insurgency in the northern parts of the country. Photographs emerging from Jawzjan purportedly shows hundreds of men armed with assault rifles and machine guns as they gather…