04/08/2014 EDITORIAL : WHY SECURITY SITUATION DETERIORATED? Since the Taliban have mounted their subversive activities particularly in the past month of Ramadan—a sacred month being known for blessings. binany trading But, this month turned out to be the deadliest for innocent Afghan civilians because of the brutalities of the Taliban. W..................

04/08/2014 EDITORIAL : EXECUTION OF 17 TALIBAN FIGHTERS BY THEIR OWN COMMANDERS The pressing question of the day is when will the war come to an end and when will the common man end to be the victim? This question has become much relevant in the current political deadlock caused by the runoff election, the US consistent policy (not open to ch..................

31/07/2014 TRANSFORMATION OF AFGHANISTAN FROM JUMPING PAD TO A GEOGRAPHY OF OPPORTUNITIES THROUGH INTERTWINING REGIONAL INTERESTS Afghanistan on one hand has remained the jumping pad for different invaders and occupiers due to its geo-strategic and geo-political location in the heart of Asia. On the other hand it has remained the significant trade route to Central Asia, South Asia, West Asia..................

30/07/2014 ARTICLE 245 : QUESTIONS REMAIN Now that Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan has deigned to inform the public about his government’s alleged thinking behind the invocation of Article 245 of the Constitution, it is worth examining the substance of what Mr Nisar has claimed...................

30/07/2014 OUR SECURITY DISORDER THE battle to secure control of militant sanctuaries across North Waziristan was meant to proceed without distractions for the Pakistan Army. But the choice by the government to invoke Article 245 of the Constitution facilitating the handing over of Islamabad to t..................

25/07/2014 EDITORIAL: JUSTICE FOR ALL Death sentence for the police officer who killed a foreign photojournalist and injured a reporter is indeed a good verdict of a Kabul court as it would restore trust of foreign media-persons, working in the country, over the Afghan government to some extent...................

25/07/2014 CHINA SHOULD REINVENT ITS POLICY OF STATE TERRORISM IN XINJIANG Repression XinjiangWhile the other countries of the world fight their own demons in the media glare China is one place where political problems are successfully kept under wraps...................

23/07/2014 CHINA PAKISTAN RELATIONS AND INDIA – STRATEGIC CHOICES As US Pakistan relations slide to their nadir since 2001, Pakistan is hedging on a strong China backing to fill the vacuum thus created. It has been promoting China as the alternative benefactor that could deliver badly needed economic and military assistance...................

22/07/2014 WESTERNERS MISJUDGED HAMID KARZAI: GEN ALLEN Former Commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and US troops in Afghanistan said the European leaders had misunderstood the Afghan president by assuming that Hamid Karzai is inherently a “Westphalian President”...................

22/07/2014 IMPACT OF IRAQ’S MELTDOWN ON SOUTH ASIA Even as the re-run (second round) of the Presidential polls in Afghanistan was marred by Taliban sponsored killings and amputations unlike the first round, the explosive events in Iraq have shell shocked the world...................

22/07/2014 NATO DRONE STRIKES LEAVE 28 MILITANTS DEAD IN HEART, LOGAR At least 28 militants were killed following a drone strikes carried out by NATO troops in western Herat and central Logar provinces, said officials Sunday...................

22/07/2014 IRAN, PAKISTAN BEHIND RECENT DEADLY ATTACKS IN AFGHANISTAN: KABUL RALLY Tens of members of a civil society organization during a rally on Sunday severely condemned recent deadly attacks in the country which left scores of civilians dead and wounded particularly the deadly attack inside a market in Orgun district of eastern Paktika pro..................

16/07/2014 EDITORIAL : LAWLESSNESS, DEMOCRACY AND OUR POLITICAL ELITE Lawlessness has been on the surge. There are a number of factors behind this surge. The biggest factor is militancy. The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) chief for northwestern Faryab province said Monday that 50 complaints of attacks, killi..................

15/07/2014 THE RUNOFF POLL DEADLOCK : FINALLY THE UNCERTAINTY IS OVER Finally the clouds of uncertainty and the risk of sliding back into chaos are gone. The second round of the presidential election had caused a serious political stalemate and many feared breaking out of a serious schism that will potentially throw Afghanistan back..................

14/07/2014 HOW DIGITAL CURRENCY COULD END CORRUPTION IN AFGHANISTAN Humans have been using gold as a store of value for millennia. The earliest pure gold coins date to about 560 B.C. in what is now Turkey. Gold coins proliferated for many reasons: The metal is shiny, durable, malleable, easy to test for authenticity, and non-react..................

10/07/2014 AFGHANISTAN-INDIA: A RENEWED PARTNERSHIP Afghanistan-India relations go beyond the cordial relationship the two countries’ elected governments enjoy. Afghanistan and India have long interacted with each other either through trade and commerce, and through their many shared cultural values and commonaliti..................

09/07/2014 CHINA BANS RAMADAN FAST IN MUSLIM NORTHWEST BEIJING: Students and civil servants in China's Muslim northwest, where Beijing is enforcing a security crackdown following deadly unrest, have been ordered to avoid taking part in traditional fasting during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan...................

07/07/2014 DEFENCE MINISTER’S SIGNIFICANT VISIT TO JAMMU AND KASHMIR Union Defence Minister Arun Jaitley, as was expected, chose Jammu and Kashmir as his first border state destination for an orientation visit and that too within a month of taking over the reins of his ministry. There was speculation of some fireworks since this wa..................

07/07/2014 KNACK FOR LEADERSHIP: PRESIDENT HAMID KARZAI'S NICHE IN HISTORY Charismatic, charming, stylish, Hamid Karzai is all who is cherished and admired by many, politicians, friends, critics, observers, International personalities, and even fashion gurus. Well known for his personal morality, Karzai is very audacious man, with his..................

04/07/2014 INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS HALTED, BUT WHY? The country is locked in an uncertain situation for too many reasons. The intensified attacks of the Taliban insurgents in Helmand, the persistent deadlock caused by post runoff election times, the non-delivery of aid by international community, reduction in expor..................

04/07/2014 SYRIA-IRAQ 'CALIPH' INCITES MUSLIMS TO HOLY WAR (Reuters) - The leader of the al Qaeda offshoot now calling itself the Islamic State has called on Muslims worldwide to take up arms and flock to the "caliphate" it has declared on captured Syrian and Iraqi soil...................

03/07/2014 THE WOES OF IDPS : BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER In the war of Arabs and Americans, the Afghans – whether living in Afghanistan or Pakistan – are the worst victims. In the war of the then USSR and the US, millions of Afghans were killed or made amputees, and millions more made refugees. But in the wake of 9/11 a..................

02/07/2014 THE INSURGENT'S SHADY WAR AND OUR MISERIES Keeping them in captivation for two weeks, the Taliban released the 33 abducted lecturers of the Kandahar University. They were freed in an area nearby Ghazni province. Teachers, all over the world, except the part we live in, are regarded as highly respected and ..................

02/07/2014 IS THERE ANY END TO TERRORISM? Terrorism is spreading like a fatal virus across the already threatened globe, but developed countries who engineered the war-on terror policy have completely been befuddled ?how to tackle this menace which has periled lives of developing nations. Hundreds of peop..................

30/06/2014 CHINA SENTENCES 113 ON TERROR CRIMES IN XINJIANG The sentences come after Beijing has vowed to crack down on religious extremists and separatist groups, which it blames for a series of violent attacks in Xinjiang, the traditional home of the Muslim Uighurs, and elsewhere...................

30/06/2014 EDITORIAL : TALIBAN, HELMAND AND RAMADAN This country has many problems. Fighting back invading imperial powers for hundreds of years has made this country stunted—didn’t let it to grow and to be equally at par with developed nations of the world. Afghanistan, even today is at war. In the recent past (40..................

30/06/2014 THE LONGER VIEW WITH the North Waziristan IDP crisis still unfolding, it is necessary and right that much of the national attention is focused on getting the state to do everything it can to ensure the ordeal of being made homeless within one’s country is rendered less painful in..................

27/06/2014 NORTH WAZIRISTAN OPERATION: TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE? After dragging its feet for over a decade, the Pakistan army has finally launched an operation in the North Waziristan Agency (NWA), the hapless region that the country’s security planners had virtually ceded to local, cross-border and global terrorists. Half a mi..................

27/06/2014 SEIZE THE DAY As the euphoria of a fantastic electoral victory dies down, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will start looking at various issues of governance and security. This must include a serious look at Kashmir, where a lack of understanding and of coordination between the Cen..................

26/06/2014 EDITORIAL : ABDUCTING TEACHERS : A COWARD MESSAGE Teachers in our society - plagued by internal bickering, political instability, terror and insurgency - are considered to be highly non-political, as they have nothing to do with politics but to educate children of the nation. Then why to kidnap them? Militants ne..................

26/06/2014 A THIRD WAY JUN 26 - Nepal is semi-capitalist . Nepal has completed a capitalist revolution. Nepal is capitalist. Nepal has been capitalist for a long time. Most of us believe at least one of these statements. We cannot all be right; this is social ‘science’, not a literary q..................

26/06/2014 UNFOLDING CRISIS THE difference between governmental action and inaction can sometimes be difficult to discern — but often it is blindingly and shockingly obvious. Hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people from North Waziristan have poured out of the region and the fede..................

25/06/2014 AFGHAN RUNOFF ELECTION, POLITICAL AND SECURITY CHANGES IN THE REGION Yesterday the Afghan run-off election was held successfully, but just a few days back presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah’s convoy was stuck by two suicide bombs that killed 6 and injured 22 others. Thanks God presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah escaped ..................

25/06/2014 A TIME BOMB IN AFGHANISTAN's 'BALLOT BOX' Afghans learned this week that they have to vote again to choose between two would-be presidents. On the surface, that’s seemingly good news for Washington; both candidates are thought to be anti-Taliban, anti-al-Qaeda, and for a U.S. security deal...................

25/06/2014 RETURN OF THE GULLU BRIGADE In Gullu Butt’s shape, the filth and puss of our political system, so carefully covered up under a shiny crust of glitzy infrastructural development, bubbled to the surface like an overflowing gutter. In a rage of orchestrated frenzy, Gullu smashed cars and smashe..................

25/06/2014 KASHMIRIYAT : THE CONCEPT AND THE OUTLOOK The festival of Kheer Bhawani is celebrated by the Pundit community of the Kashmir valley every year on the eighth day of the Jyeshtha month of the Hindu calendar (that falls in the month of June), at the holy Temple of the Goddess Ragnaya Bhagwati (One of her man..................

25/06/2014 SEPARATISTS IN KASHMIR VALLEY ARE CLUTCHING AT STRAWS “It is unfortunate that the BJP and its wings are hell bent to divide J&K; in the name of religion and geography. I want to convey to them that all five regions of the erstwhile princely state of J&K; including Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan Administered Kashmir, Jammu,..................

20/06/2014 NEPAL TURNING A SAFER PLACE TO LIVE IN SASIA Nepal is the safest place to live in South Asia after Bhutan, according to Global Peace Index Report, the world’s leading measure of national peacefulness...................

20/06/2014 AL-QAEDA’S KASHMIR JIHAD VIDEO CASTIGATES POLITICS OF ‘SHUTDOWN, PEACEFUL PROTESTS’ An al-Qaeda video exhorting Muslims of Kashmir to wage a jihad against India has questioned politics of “shutdowns, dialogues and resolutions”...................

30/05/2014 INDIA’S MODI AND CHINA’S XI : FRENEMIES, OR JUST PLAIN ENEMIES? With two nationalists in power, relations between the world’s two most populous nations could turn even frostier Narendra Modi, the newly installed Prime Minister of India, has no shortage of problems to tackle. The slumping economy requires a hefty dose of dif..................

30/05/2014 JEHADIS WILL SOON TURN TO KASHMIR : FORMER PAKISTAN ARMY CHIEF Islamabad: Kashmir is the heart of India-Pakistan relations and jehadis will turn towards Kashmir after the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan this year, a former Pakistani army chief has said. "Kashmir is the core issue that needs to be settled for..................

23/05/2014 A TIME BOMB IN AFGHANISTAN’S ‘BALLOT BOX’ Afghans learned this week that they have to vote again to choose between two would-be presidents. On the surface, that’s seemingly good news for Washington; both candidates are thought to be anti-Taliban, anti-al-Qaeda, and for a U.S. security deal. But danger li..................

23/05/2014 PASHTUNS AND “PAKISTAN’S INTERNAL DEMOGRAPHIC IMBALANCE POLICY” The United States, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan got a golden opportunity to speed up their project of “opportunistic emigration” of Afghan nationals to Pakistan when Noor Mohammad Taraki and his comrades brought the socialist revolution in Afghanistan. Afghans began ..................

22/05/2014 DURAND LINE CONTROVERSY: AFGHANISTAN, PAKISTAN DIFFER OVER ZERO-POINT Chief of Army Staff said that maps with Afghan and Pakistani officials differ about zero-point of the Durand Line which has created tension between the two countries. Gen. Shir Mohammad Karimi in an interview with Azadi Radio said that one of the challengeable is..................

22/05/2014 MURDER IN THE NAME OF FAITH THE fate of 65-year-old Khalil Ahmed was sealed on the day he was accused of blasphemy. It was his death warrant. He was killed while in police detention hours after he was arrested. A schoolboy, who has not been identified by name, reportedly walked into the p..................

21/05/2014 THE BEGINNING OR END OF THE STATE OF PAKISTAN? Instead of grappling with insurgents as a separate stakeholder, their inclusion in the system and then subsequently in primary institutions is likely to infect these power centres in a dreadful way..................

21/05/2014 INDIA’S STRATEGIC CHOICES Key policy options and strategic responses for India under the new dispensation at the centre are being covered in a series of articles hereafter. Economic Development The key element among these is why the debate on reforms has been reduced to “Growth ver..................

20/06/2014 SOUTH CHINA SEA DISPUTE OVERSHADOWS ASEAN SUMMIT The ongoing dispute over the South China Seas carried into the 24th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in the Myanmar capital of Naypyitaw over the weekend as leaders from the 10-member nations uniformly expressed their concern over the escalati..................

20/05/2014 WASHINGTON’S FLAWED MYANMAR POLICY Many of Myanmar’s ethnic minorities are growing increasingly disillusioned with America and may turn to China instead...................

20/05/2014 CICA SUMMIT TO HELP ASIAN COUNTRIES STRENGTHEN MUTUAL TRUST BEIJING - An upcoming Asian security summit will strengthen dialogue, build mutual trust and broaden cooperation among Asian countries and help the region address some hotspot issues, foreign leaders and experts said. The fourth summit of the Conference on Inte..................

20/05/2014 JAMMU AND KASHMIR: TOWARDS A NEW THOUGHT AND STATESMANSHIP The mammoth elections of the world’s largest democracy are finally over! For many months the collective psyche of the nation has remained focussed on political discourse. Finally, the result is out and the BJP led NDA is poised to form the government at the centre..................

20/05/2014 KARZAI CALLS FOR SINO-AFGHAN FIGHT AGAINST TERROR KABUL - President Hamid Karzai, who met his Chinese counterpart in Shanghai, said on Monday that Afghanistan was willing to make joint efforts with China to combat terrorism and transnational crime. Karzai met Xi Jinping in the afternoon, with both sides discus..................

16/05/2014 RUTHLESS IRAN AND THE HAPLESS AFGHAN REFUGEES iN the aftermath of the US invasion of Afghanistan to topple the Taliban—a force that hosted its enemy number one—Al-Qaeda, Iranians were concerned at the implications of the presence of a large ISAF-NATO force and bases on its western border as well as the renewe..................

16/05/2014 KABUL’S ARMS DEAL AND PAKISTAN’S PARANOIA Afghanistan has been hemorrhaging because of militancy. Who supports this militancy is no secret. To tame the scourge of this threat and to teach a good lesson (the lesson of force) to the Taliban, Afghanistan needs a well-trained and well-equipped army. To enable..................

16/05/2014 THE POST AFGHAN ELECTION SCENARIO AND PAKISTAN To quote Theodore Roosevelt: A vote is like a rifle. Its usefulness depends upon the character of the user. It is interesting to note that elections in Afghanistan are going on in the backdrop of Obama’s Asia tour, Pakistan’s slow but successful negotiations with ..................

16/05/2014 AN AFGHANISTAN ENDGAME CLIMAX What can be a climax of Afghanistan endgame? Inching towards stability or an anti-climax—one brow the fears, which are widely reported from this ill-fated land and the victim of most of the conflicting global interests of our times. The changing of guards in Afgh..................

13/05/2014 CHINA: THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THEY REMAIN THE SAME The customary decadal change of leadership in China took place on March 5, 2013, during a session of the Chinese Parliament in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The highlight of the transition process was that despite its fair share of intrigue, rivalry, sp..................

13/05/2014 TO ENGAGE OR NOT TO ENGAGE IN DIALOGUE WITH PAKISTAN “Do you think it is possible to have a discussion amidst the deafening noise of bomb blasts and gunshots? So, to have a reasonable discussion, first the blasts and gunshots have to stop,” said the BJP Prime Ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, to a national Engli..................

12/05/2014 THE DHARNA WAR There are many similarities between 1997-99 and 2013-2014. In 1997-99 the PMLN government had just been handed power with a two thirds majority to end Pakistan’s ills. Soon, Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah and President Farooq Leghari made unceremonious exits. The E..................

12/05/2014 A WORSENING SITUATION While speaking during an inauguration ceremony, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif offered to meet Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan to “discuss” issues...................

09/05/2014 INDIAN CHIEF OF ARMY STAFF CALLS ON THE PRESIDENT The visiting Chief of the Army Staff of India, General Bikram Singh? has paid a courtesy ?call on President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom. The meeting was held yesterday afternoon ?at the President’s Office.? At the meeting, President Yameen and General Bikram di..................

09/05/2014 HOW XI CAN SOLVE THE TIBET PROBLEM In every political culture — even in ones with a premium on stressing continuity, consensus and unity — at some point, newly appointed leaders will want to respond to the urges of their egos...................

09/05/2014 THE VIEWS OF A MARXIST DEMON THE Dalai Lama jokes, in his broken English, that these days, “demon peacefully sleeping”. He playfully puts his hands up by his head to make horns with his fingers; a mocking reference to the word he says Chinese officials have used to describe him. But since the..................

08/05/2014 INCLUSIVE BY ASSOCIATION Writing in Nagarik daily a couple of days ago, Santosh Mehta, spokesperson for the rump Sadbhavana Party, reiterated what has by now become conventional wisdom, that the poor showing of the Madhes-based parties in the second Constituent Assembly (CA) was a result ..................

08/05/2014 THE EVEREST SPRING SEASON IS OVER Climbing for the 2014 Mt Everest spring season now seems to be over. The final decision was due to a combination of factors that led to large commercial expeditions and their hired high altitude workers leaving Everest Base Camp last week after the devastating ava..................

07/05/2014 ILLEGAL ARMS IMPORT Considering the current situation in the country, the last thing Pakistan needs is more guns. Reports reveal that licensed arms dealers have been engaged in the illegal import of weapons of all kinds. There are no more than 520 licensed arms dealers in the entire ..................

07/05/2014 RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISTS TAKE MAJOR POLICY DECISIONS IN PAKISTAN “Pakistan is no longer considering India for Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status,” stated Khuram Dastgir Khan, the country’s Minister of Commerce, in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. This statement has been carried by the media in Riyadh and, wonder of wonders, ..................

07/05/2014 WINDS OF CHANGE IN GILGIT-BALTISTAN A change in the corridors of power in Islamabad is something that the deprived people of Gilgit-Baltistan dread. This is so because the resultant politics of witch-hunting negatively impact their already very difficult existence. Recently, wheat subsidy to Gilgit-..................

06/05/2014 OUR CULTURE OF HONOUR IN Shooting an Elephant George Orwell writes about how a person loses his own freedom most of all while practising imperialism. In this story an English police officer posted in Burma is the symbol of imperial power. He receives news of an elephant on a rampage in..................

06/05/2014 FORGOTTEN RIGHTS ENFORCED disappearances. Sectarian killings. Attacks on minorities. Honour killings. The list of gross human rights abuses in Pakistan is long and painful. As one incident of horror overtakes another, there are many aspects of violations that remain under-reported..................

05/05/2014 ABHORRENT GAME PLAN OF TERRORIST AND DIVISIVE FORCES STANDS EXPOSED The cold bloodied killing of a polling officer in the South Kashmir constituency of Jammu and Kashmir well after the polling was over reflects the remorselessness of the sadistic forces that have vowed to leave no stone unturned in disrupting the democratic right ..................

05/05/2014 MINDLESS DESTRUCTION OF RELIGIOUS HERITAGE IN PAKISTAN SHOULD STOP You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the State". This was the p..................

05/05/2014 HOLES IN THE IRON WALL A violent attack on April 30th at the main railway station in Urumqi, the capital of western China’s Xinjiang region, has left at least three people dead and nearly 80 injured. The authorities have been quick to blame “terrorists” (here, in Chinese), a term that i..................

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