An Afghan security official said the handover was expected in about 20 days and the defense ministry had set up special committees to manage it….reports Asian Lite News
As Washington speed-up to complete the withdrawal of its troops ahead of September 11, the US military will be handing over its main Bagram Air Base to Afghan forces in about 20 days, an official said on Tuesday.
“I can confirm we will hand over Bagram Air Base,” a US defense official told France-based news agency without specifying when the transfer would take place, reported Afghanistan Times.
An Afghan security official said the handover was expected in about 20 days and the defense ministry had set up special committees to manage it.
The base, the centre for nationwide command and air operations for the past two decades, also houses a prison that held thousands of Taliban and terrorists over the years, reported Afghanistan Times.
US troops in Afghanistan.
The vast base, built by the Soviets in the 1980s, is the biggest military facility used by US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, with tens of thousands of troops stationed there during the peak of America’s military involvement in the violence-wracked country.
Meanwhile, Washington has already handed over several military bases to Afghan forces before May 1, when it began accelerating the final withdrawal of troops, reported Afghanistan Times.
Last month it completed the withdrawal from Kandahar Airfield in southern Afghanistan, once the second-largest foreign military base in the country.
The US withdrawal comes despite bloody clashes across the country between the Taliban and Afghan forces.
Peace talks were launched in September in Qatar, but so far have failed to strike any deal to end a war that has killed tens of thousands of people over nearly two decades. (ANI)
Afghanistan’s National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib said that Taliban leaders had not been in contact with their supreme leader for one year, reports Mrityunjoy Kumar Jha
The Taliban’s top leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada has been absent from important meetings and has not been seen in public for the last one year, triggering speculation about his physical status.
Citing the intelligence reports, Afghanistan’s National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib said during a press conference on Saturday that Taliban leaders had not been in contact with their supreme leader for one year.
“Taliban have had no contact with Mullah Haibatullah for the last 12 months. There is no information available whether he is alive or dead? No one had heard his voice and no one had met him. Intelligence information proves it,” the Pajhwok news quoted him saying.
According to senior Afghan intelligence, army and NATO officials, most decisions of the Taliban regarding peace and security are being taken by the group’s deputy leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of the infamous Haqqani network, known for working hand-in-glove with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
But the Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid told Pajhwok Afghan News that Mullah Haibatullah was alive and was doing his job. Mujahid said that all their leaders and officials are in contact with the supreme leader. They take his advice on all important issues and share their reports with him.
Taliban
He added that Akhundzada is in a safe and secure place, and his absence in public was driven by security reasons.
There have been several reports that senior leaders of the Taliban are in a safe hideout near Quetta under the protection of the Pakistani army. Few weeks ago, members of the Taliban negotiating team had travelled to some undisclosed locations near Quetta for further consultations with their senior leaders, but the absence of the top leader’s name stood out.
Three months ago, there were media reports that Akhundzada had been killed in a bomb blast in a mosque in Quetta. His brother and a number of people of his seminary had apparently also suffered casualties in the incident, which is said to have taken place in April 2020.
The Taliban had rejected the report. Taliban leader Ahmadullah Wasiq said on Twitter: “This is false news and baseless rumours have no truth. Spreading such rumours and false news is a failed propaganda attempt by the enemy’s intelligence services. The enemy wants to hide its defeats in such rumours and distract the people’s minds.”
However, it is not unknown for the Taliban to hide the death of its leaders.
Mullah Omar’s death in Pakistan in 2013 was kept hidden from the public by the Taliban for about two years. The group confirmed the death in July 2015 only after Afghanistan’s spy agency went public with the development.
Mullah Omar’s successor, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, was killed in a US drone strike in Balochistan, in May 2016. Akhundzada was named the new head of the Taliban days later. He was previously the Taliban’s chief justice and most of the decisions and fatwas were made by him.
It is no secret that scores of top Afghan Taliban leaders are based in Pakistan. The top leadership council is called the “Quetta Shura” because most of its members are based in Quetta.
This year, Salaam Times raised the issue about the whereabouts of the Taliban supremo. It said that no voice clip of the Taliban’s leader had been released since a year and his Eid messages were all in written form.
(This content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)
Only individuals who have had the first shot are currently receiving jabs….reports Asian Lite News
Afghanistan is waiting for new deliveries of Covid-19 vaccines amid a surge in infections and a third wave of the pandemic, Health Ministry spokesman Dastagir Nazari said on Monday.
Nazari told dpa news agency that the process of vaccinating new people has been stopped in the country.
Only individuals who have had the first shot are currently receiving jabs.
The country with an estimated population of 37 million has so far received 500,000 doses of the AstraZeneca jab from India and another 468,000 doses from the international vaccine-sharing programme COVAX.
The doses were used to vaccinate health workers, members of the armed forces, teachers and media staff.
The country is expected to receive another 700,000 doses of vaccines from China “in the near future” ,but there is no exact date for the deliveries, Nazari said.
Afghanistan is struggling to receive vaccines for the entire population.
The country is supposed to receive vaccines for a fifth of the population through COVAX.
For another 28 per cent of the population, Kabul has the budget to buy vaccines itself, Nazari said.
Vaccine (ANI)
The government was trying to get vaccines as soon as possible.
However, he added, “like the majority of the underdeveloped countries”, Afghanistan was confronted with the problem that there is massive global vaccine demand.
Recently, the country witnessed a surge in new infections with the virus.
Currently, of 1,500 intensive care beds for the whole country 72 per cent are already occupied by patients, according to the official.
Afghanistan’s current Covid-19 caseload and death toll stand at 70,761 and 2,919, respectively.
Taliban has besieged seven rural Afghan military outposts across the wheat fields and onion patches of the Laghman province, in eastern Afghanistan…reports Asian Lite News
Since the US troops began leaving Afghanistan since early May, there has been a wave of Afghan military surrendering to the Taliban in rural areas.
Taliban has besieged seven rural Afghan military outposts across the wheat fields and onion patches of the Laghman province, in eastern Afghanistan, reported The Frontier Post.
Ammunition was depleted inside the bedraggled outposts in Laghman province. Food was scarce. Some police officers hadn’t been paid in five months.
By mid-month, security forces had surrendered all seven outposts after extended negotiations, according to village elders. At least 120 soldiers and police were given safe passage to the government-held provincial center in return for handing over weapons and equipment.
Taliban enlisted village elders to visit the outposts bearing a message: Surrender or die.
Taliban
“We told them, ‘Look, your situation is bad — reinforcements aren’t coming,” said Nabi Sarwar Khadim, 53, one of several elders who negotiated the surrenders.
Since May 1, at least 26 outposts and bases in just four provinces — Laghman, Baghlan, Wardak and Ghazni — have surrendered after such negotiations, according to village elders and government officials, reported The Frontier Post.
With morale diving as US troops leave, and the Taliban seizing on each surrender as a propaganda victory, each collapse feeds the next in the Afghan countryside.
Among the negotiated surrenders were four district centers, which house local governors, police and intelligence chiefs — effectively handing the government facilities to Taliban control and scattering the officials there, at least temporarily.
The Taliban have negotiated Afghan troop surrenders in the past, but never at the scale and pace of the base collapses this month in the four provinces extending east, north and west of Kabul.
The tactic has removed hundreds of government forces from the battlefield, secured strategic territory and reaped weapons, ammunition and vehicles for the Taliban — often without firing a shot, reported The Frontier Post.
Taliban
The base collapses are one measure of the rapidly deteriorating government war effort as one outpost after another falls, sometimes after battles, but often after wholesale surrenders.
The surrenders are part of a broader Taliban playbook of seizing and holding territory as security force morale plummets with the exit of international troops. Buyoffs of local police and militia. Local cease-fires that allow the Taliban to consolidate gains. A sustained military offensive despite pleas for peace talks and a nationwide cease-fire, reported The Frontier Post.
“The government is not able to save the security forces,” said Mohammed Jalal, a village elder in Baghlan province. “If they fight, they will be killed, so they have to surrender.”
The surrenders are the work of Taliban Invitation and Guidance Committees, which intervene after insurgents cut off roads and supplies to surrounded outposts.
Committee leaders or Taliban military leaders phone base commanders — and sometimes their families — and offer to spare troops’ lives if they surrender their outposts, weapons and ammunition.
In several cases, the committees have given surrendering troops money — typically around USD 130 — and civilian clothes and sent them home unharmed. But first they videotape the men as they promise not to rejoin the security forces. They log their phone numbers and the names of family members — and vow to kill the men if they rejoin the military, reported The Frontier Post.
“The Taliban commander and the Invitation and Guidance Committee called me more than 10 times and asked me to surrender,” said Maj. Imam Shah Zafari, 34, a district police chief in Wardak province who surrendered his command center and weapons on May 11 after negotiations mediated by local elders.
Taliban attack at the peak in AfghanistanÂ
After the Taliban provided a car ride home to Kabul, he said, a committee member phoned to assure him that the government would not imprison him for surrendering. “He said, ‘We have so much power in the government and we can release you,” Zafari said.
The Taliban committees take advantage of a defining characteristic of Afghan wars: Fighters and commanders regularly switch sides, cut deals, negotiate surrenders and cultivate village elders for influence with local residents.
The current conflict is really dozens of local wars. These are intimate struggles, where brothers and cousins battle one another and commanders on each side cajole, threatened and negotiated by cellphone, reported The Frontier Post.
“A Taliban commander calls me all the time, trying to destroy my morale, so that I’ll surrender,” said Wahidullah Zindani, 36, a bearded, sunburned police commander who has rejected Taliban demands to surrender his nine-man, bullet-pocked outpost in Laghman province.
The negotiated surrenders are part of a broader offensive in which the Taliban have surrounded at least five provincial capitals this spring, according to a Pentagon inspector general report released May 18.
The offensive has intensified since the US withdrawal began May 1. The Taliban have used their control of several major highways to cut off bases and garrisons, leaving them vulnerable. (ANI)
US soldiers prepare to depart from Kunduz, Afghanistan. (Brian Harris Planet Pix ZUMA_dpa_IANS)
Pentagon officials have said that the US has completed up to 25 per cent of the entire withdrawal process, reports Asian Lite News
A key military US base called the New Kabul Compound (NKC) has been handed over to the Afghan forces, the Ministry of Defence announced.
Fawad Aman, a spokesman for the Ministry, said that at a ceremony on the occasion on Friday, US and NATO forces commander Gen. Scott Miller emphasised the international community’s continued support to Afghan forces, reports TOLO News.
The withdrawal of the US and NATO forces from the country started on May 1.
According to figures provided by US Central Command, the Pentagon has so far removed the equivalent of approximately 160 C-17 loads of material out of Afghanistan and has turned over more than 10,000 pieces of equipment to the Defense Logistics Agency for disposition.
The figures also show that the US had by last week officially handed over five facilities to the Ministry of Defence.
Pentagon officials have said that the US has completed up to 25 per cent of the entire withdrawal process.
Violence however, remains high in the country, especially after the three-day ceasefire from May 13-15.
The Ministry of Defence on Saturday said that at least 210 Taliban were killed in clashes and defensive operations by Afghan forces in 18 provinces, including Kabul, in the last 24 hours.
As the Taliban become increasingly assertive in the ongoing peace talks and potentially set to govern the country again someday, it is vital that New Delhi carves a channel for diplomatic dealings, writes Hollie McKay
As the United States prepares to pull out the entirety of its remaining 2,500 troops from Afghanistan (Liptak, 2021) – a move fast being followed by NATO allies in the war-tattered nation (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation [NATO], 2021a, 2021b) – the onus for security and stability will fall on the regions neighbours.
However, this is a window of opportunity in which India can lead the way. It will not be an easy or simple process. As the Taliban become increasingly assertive in the ongoing peace talks and potentially set to govern the country again someday, it is vital that New Delhi carves a channel for diplomatic dealings.
So far there have been some evident efforts in that direction. Indian officials are taking an increasingly visible role in the various meetings concerning Afghanistan’s future, of which Taliban members have been party. New Delhi will attend the ten-day Istanbul conference starting this week (Aljazeera, 2021; Did Press Agency, 2021).
Of course, India’s history with the Taliban – for instance when it was poised at the Kabul helm from 1996 to 2001 – has been a turbulent one. This is not surprising given the Taliban’s protracted policy of directly and indirectly supporting Pakistani terrorist groups, a policy which has resulted among other things in various skirmishes in Jammu and Kashmir.
Moreover, it is hard to forget the painful hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight in 1999 by five Taliban gunmen, resulting in one passenger being fatally stabbed and 17 being wounded (Joshi, 2020). Allegations of involvement by the Pakistani ISI inflamed the aftermath.
And certainly, the Taliban’s perchance for violence and the ruthless targeting of both Afghan forces and civilians in recent years reminds all the sobering reality that their overarching tactical approach remains unchanged. Furthermore and of course, India’s leaders cannot enthusiastically align with a political faction that ideologically limits the education and vocational opportunities for women and endorses extremist values that amount to violence and terrorism.
The diplomatic dance with the Taliban must therefore be delicate, but not dismissive. Uncomfortable facts are facts nonetheless, and India will need to work with the reality on the ground if – or when – the Taliban resume a potent palace position.
On the plus side, the Taliban’s top brass has not – for some two decades – made explicit anti-New Delhi threats. They were swift to release, following quiet negotiations, the seven captured Indian engineers working in Afghanistan three years ago (The Economic Times, 2019).
The organisation has also refrained from sabotaging or attacking India-backed development projects in Afghanistan – all of which should be perceived as positive tools for the communications arsenal. The success in this area may have stemmed in large part from New Delhi’s non-militarized Afghan strategy.
Rather than bolstering Kabul’s security endeavours with boots on the ground, India’s lawmakers instead opted for a “soft power” approach – focusing its support spending on economic and infrastructure projects, as well as community-centric development and humanitarian aid. The war-splattered nation is the second-largest beneficiary of Indian assistance (Vivek, 2017), shoring up a positive perception of India among much of the Afghan citizenry – a critical puzzle piece for future influence in the embattled nation.
Indeed, India has built up a robust portfolio of strategic interests in Afghanistan – despite its conflicts and volatility. A good example is the $100 million enlargement of the Chabahar port (Zee News, 2014) to serve as an import-export core between Central Asia and Afghanistan.
By opting to play a more pervasive part in Afghanistan, India also stands to secure even closer strategic ties to the United States. Washington has vowed to maintain its diplomatic and humanitarian endeavours in Afghanistan after the military exit, and President Biden has expressed a desire to see neighbouring nations play more prominent roles.
US State Department spokesperson Ned Price announced this month that Secretary Antony Blinken and his Indian counterpart S. Jaishankar would work together in advocating Afghanistan cohesion. This of course constitutes the outgrowth of a long and trusting affinity (The Week, 2021).
India can also coordinate its strategy and act as something of an interlocutor for all countries directly impacted by security affairs in Afghanistan – China, Russia, Pakistan, Turkey, Qatar and beyond.
Moreover, the likes of ISIS-K, the Da’esh outfit operating on Afghan terrain, appears relatively small at this stage; there are an estimated 19 other terrorist outfits thought to have a footprint inside the country (Arian, 2017). The Taliban may, in the end, turn out to be a necessary bastion against groups that pose threats both within and outside of Afghanistan’s borders.
However, when assuming responsibilities, India must also be mindful of maintaining a healthy distance from Kabul’s internal security affairs – ramping up developmental support with the goal of long-term stability while giving space for Afghanistan to grow and take shape on its own.
And even though it remains to be seen whether the Taliban takes an increased focus on the contentious Kashmir issue, Suhail Shaheen – a representative for the Taliban’s political wing in Afghanistan – has previously taken to Twitter to espouse that in their policy it “is clear that it does not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.” (Gupta, 2020)
For its part, another spokesperson for the Taliban’s political wing – officially termed the Islamic Emirate – also pledged (Gupta 2021) this past week that its foreign policy would “seek positive relations with all its neighbours” on the basic principles of “respect and interaction” (Gupta, 2021).
“The Islamic Emirate does not allow anyone to use the soil of Afghanistan against another country, group or individual. It should also be made clear that the Islamic Emirate will never allow anyone to turn the soil of Afghanistan into an arena of proxy conflicts and disputes,” spokesperson Muhammad Naeem Wardak told CNN News18’s Manoj Gupta (Gupta, 2021), while also doubling down that they do not intend to interfere in any cross-border disputes, including those involving Pakistan.
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan calls on all to assist the Afghan people in achieving independence and freedom, in the light of the values of the people, in the establishment of an independent Islamic system and the reconstruction of the country.”
Thus, while India cannot control who takes power in Kabul, it is in India’s best interests to keep the door open to whomever wins the stakes in the months and years to come. Keeping in mind the Taliban’s tenacity over the past two decades of US occupation, and the fact that it is a force which is here to stay.
(The writer a war crimes investigator and author of “Only Cry for the Living: Memos from Inside the ISIS Battlefield”. The view expressed are personal)
According to the joint media statement by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Foreign Minister Marise Payne, the embassy building will be closed on May 28…reports Asian Lite News
Australia will close its embassy in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, where the Australian troops are scheduled to withdraw later this year, an official statement issued here on Tuesday said.
According to the joint media statement by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Foreign Minister Marise Payne, the embassy building will be closed on May 28, reports Xinhua news agency.
“Our residential representation in Afghanistan and the Australian Embassy in Kabul will be closed at this time,” they said.
“It is Australia’s expectation that this measure will be temporary and that we will resume a permanent presence in Kabul once circumstances permit,” the statement said.
“The departure of the international forces and hence Australian forces from Afghanistan over the next few months brings with it an increasingly uncertain security environment where the Government has been advised that security arrangements could not be provided to support our ongoing diplomatic presence,” the statement added.
Morrison announced in April that Australian troops would be withdrawn from Afghanistan by September this year.
According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), the embassy has been open since 2006.
US President Joe Biden announced on April 14 that all American troops would be withdrawn from Afghanistan before September 11, the 20th anniversary of the 2001 terror attacks in America.
Troops in Afghanistan.
Australia announced to withdraw its troops from Afghansitan a day after the US announcement.
As the security situation in Afghansitan remains complicated and terrorism keeps festering, analysts deem the US decision as irresponsible and warn against an intensifying civil conflict and more rampant terrorist acts.
The security situation in the war-torn Afghanistan has been deteriorating over the past weeks as Taliban militants have intensified their offensives by attacking government forces and conducting suicide bombing attacks.
The US military is currently conducting retrograde operations to leave Afghanistan….reports Asian Lite News
As the United States continues to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan, US officials are divided over plans for monitoring the worn-torn country from beyond its borders, and some are even saying that a complete retreat from the country will make it difficult for the United States to provide effective support to Afghan forces.
The US military is currently conducting retrograde operations to leave Afghanistan. US military personnel and equipment will be shipped back by September 11 deadline.
In their testimonies before the US Senate on Thursday, Pentagon officials noted that the US was able to monitor insurgent groups in Afghanistan without having a military presence in the country, Tolo news reported.
“We have the capabilities to be able to posture in the region where it is required,” said Gen. Matthew G. Trollinger, Deputy Director for Political-Military Affairs. “We have the capabilities to able to monitor potential adversaries, track these adversaries and then strike when conditions permit.”
A Pentagon release on Thursday said that after the US withdrawal, any number of possibilities might arise, including a takeover of the country by the Taliban — or a defeat of the Taliban by the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces.
“I will acknowledge the range of potential outcomes in the months as we go forward,” Brig. Gen. Matthew Trollinger, the deputy director of politico-military affairs for the Middle East, on the Joint Staff, said.
“I will say the ANDSF (Afghan security forces) — they’re a capable force. They have capable ground, air and special operations forces, and here, very recently, they’ve effectively both defended against Taliban attacks as well as gone on the offensive to disrupt Taliban activities.”
Taliban attack at the peak in AfghanistanÂ
During the Senate hearing, Senator Jim Inhofe said that a full drawdown from Afghanistan will make it much harder and more expensive to effectively support our Afghan security forces. “A complete withdrawal of US troops will make it much harder and more expensive to effectively support our Afghan security partners.”
Meanwhile, David Helvey, the acting assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, said the US has a moral obligation to help those that have helped them over the two-decade war.
“We have a moral obligation to help those that have helped us over the past 20 years of our presence and work in Afghanistan.”
Violent clashes continue in Afghanistan despite the ongoing peace talks between the elected Afghan government and the Taliban in Doha, Qatar. (ANI)
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani inspecting the guard of honor in Islamabad. (XinhuaPIDIAN
Islamabad’s shift became apparent a fortnight ago when the security establishment renewed its efforts to push the Taliban to rejoin peace talks with Ghani’s government…reports Asian Lite News
In a strategic shift, Islamabad no longer favours a Taliban total victory in Afghanistan as it seeks to balance its US and China relations.
Salman Rafi Sheikh, writing in Asia Times said that Pakistan’s security establishment appears to see more geopolitical upside to an inclusive rather than Taliban-dominated Afghan government in Kabul when US troops fully withdraw by September 11.
This marks a distinct flip of Pakistan’s previous position in favour of a Taliban total win over Kabul, one that violently ousts Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s government and establishes a new Islamic emirate to the exclusion of non-Taliban and non-Pashtun groups.
Pakistan’s security establishment believes that a total Taliban victory would galvanize Pakistan-based, Taliban-aligned groups to pursue similar objectives through military means, potentially leading to new instability including in traditional hotbed areas along the Afghan border.
Like the Taliban, Pakistan authorities are known to view dimly Ghani’s elected government, both as a US-backed puppet regime and one that is dangerously close to rival India, reported Asia Times.
Islamabad’s shift became apparent a fortnight ago when the security establishment renewed its efforts to push the Taliban to rejoin peace talks with Ghani’s government. Informed sources say the Taliban was told in clear terms that not doing so could invite “tough action” from Pakistan.
In a meeting between Pakistan’s top security officials and Afghan Taliban representatives on April 28 in Istanbul, Turkey, the latter was reportedly given an “enough is enough” message, with Pakistan emphasizing that the Taliban’s seizure of power through the sheer use of force and violence would not be viable, said Sheikh.
The meeting and its messaging were reported widely in Pakistani media and subsequently not denied by either side.
Meanwhile, Taliban has ramped up attacks as the US begins its withdrawal from government installations in the country, raising fears it plans to rout national forces and ignore any settlement reached via multi-party talks.
While pushing the Taliban to the negotiating table, Pakistan is also quickly redefining its relations with Kabul. Importantly, Pakistan’s recalibration is being led by the military establishment, which since the 1980s has been the main player in Afghanistan’s long-running civil wars, reported Asia Times.
Taliban
Led by Chief of Army Staff Qamar Bajwa, Pakistan’s top brass has since 2018 conducted its own independent brand of “military diplomacy” under Prime Minister Imran Khan’s hybrid civil-military regime.
On May 10, Bajwa travelled to Kabul where he met Ghani and assured him of Pakistan’s support for an inclusive political system in Afghanistan after the US withdraws the last of its troops in September.
On May 12, Ghani made an unusual public statement claiming that Pakistan is no longer in favour of helping to re-establish a Taliban-led Islamic emirate, as existed under its hard-line rule between 1996 and 2001.
“Pakistan’s army, in utter clarity, announced that the revival of Islamic emirate is not in Pakistan’s national interest,” Ghani said in a televised speech after Eid Al-Fitr prayers, marking the end of Ramzan.
While Ghani’s remarks have not been refuted by Islamabad or Pakistan’s top brass, it is not yet official, publicly announced policy. But Pakistan clearly has its own compelling reasons to shift its previous course vis-a-vis the Taliban and Ghani, reiterated Sheikh.
Meanwhile, Afghan Taliban that denies any direct linkage with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella organization of radical groups active on the border and affiliated with al-Qaeda, recent terror attacks in Pakistan have sparked fears of an Islamic militancy revival.
Ashraf-Ghani
Security officials quoted in Pakistani media reports have recently said that the Afghan Taliban and Pakistan-based Taliban groups are “two faces of the same coin”, said Sheikh.
On April 22, only days before Pakistani officials’ meeting with the Taliban in Istanbul, a car-bomb attack on a five-star hotel in Quetta killed at least four and injured 15 others.
In another attack on April 29, the day after the same meeting, another motorcycle bomb attack hit Quetta, killing a policeman and injuring several others.
While TTP claimed both attacks, it is important to note that Chinese interests were likely targeted in the April 22 attack.
Reports of the presence of China’s ambassador in the hotel were quickly denied by Pakistani officials, but China’s state media reported that the militant group involved in the attack may have wanted to create a bigger noise by targeting Chinese officials.
The TTP’s revival in Quetta, where the Afghan Taliban were based for years after the US invasion (known as the “Quetta Shura”), represents a major security headache for Islamabad at a time China seeks to build infrastructure in the volatile region, including at the Gwadar port.
That potent threat, some suggest, is driving Pakistan to redefine its relations with Kabul and rethink its post-US troop withdrawal position in Afghanistan, said Sheikh.
US troops in Afghanistan.
By leveraging its influence over the Taliban, Pakistan appears to be bargaining with Kabul to sever its support for groups like the TTP and ideally also uproot India’s presence in Afghanistan, reported Asia Times.
Pakistan’s apparent new emphasis on an “inclusive” system in Afghanistan also dovetails with China’s position on US withdrawal and the imperative of establishing peace through an internally agreed political settlement. In a surprising public statement, China’s foreign ministry recently chided the US for making what it sees as an overly hasty Afghan retreat.
Beijing is wary of the civil war scenarios in post-withdrawal Afghanistan, including the potential for militant activity to spill over into China’s sensitive Xinjiang province, where it stands accused of persecuting the region’s ethnic Uyghur Muslim minority in “vocational” camps.
Moreover, Pakistan still highly values its relations with China despite disputes over debts and stalled building on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a USD 60 billion Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.
The last thing Islamabad wants is for post-withdrawal chaos in Afghanistan to jeopardize both the CPEC and broader BRI in the region. China has reportedly dangled big-ticket BRI-related investments over the Taliban, reported Asia Times.
At the same time, Pakistan seems also to be trying to communicate with the US by delivering an “enough is enough” message to the Taliban. So far, the Biden administration has failed to engage with Khan’s government, which Washington likely views as too close to China.
Moreover, Pakistan’s access to International Monetary Fund (IMF) financial assistance is known to be closely tied to how Washington views Pakistan’s role in Afghanistan’s conflict.
While Pakistan has clearly not renounced its long-time support for the Taliban, it is now repositioning itself in Afghanistan in ways that aim to better balance between the US and China while at the same time pushing to diminish and ideally purge India’s influence. (ANI)
Taliban terrorists have intensified activities since the formal start of the US-led forces pull out from Afghanistan, which will be completed by September 11…Reports Asian Lite News
The United States’ military withdrawal from Afghanistan is up to 20 percent complete, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Monday.
“US Central Command estimates that we have completed between 13-20 per cent of the entire retrograde process. We expect to be able to provide weekly updates on the progress of the retrograde,” the combatant command responsible for the Middle East and parts of Central Asia said in a statement.
The US military has removed the equivalent of 115 C-17 military transport planes of material out of the war-torn country and has designated over 5,000 pieces of equipment for demolition, CENTCOM added.
The US has also handed over control of five military facilities to Afghan counterparts, the statement said.
Taliban terrorists have intensified activities since the formal start of the US-led forces pull out from Afghanistan, which will be completed by September 11.
The US entered Afghanistan ostensibly to destroy the al-Qaeda terror group under its “war on terror” military campaign. However, the effort morphed into an extended attempt to establish democracy on Afghan soil, Sputnik reported.
a piece of broken glass of a vehicle at the site of a bomb attack in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Photo by Rahmatullah Alizadah/Xinhua)
During the intervening years, the Taliban regrouped and gained control of large parts of the nation in what has become America’s longest war that lasted over two decades and led to cost up to USD 1 trillion.
Meanwhile, at least 12 Taliban militants were killed as Afghan fighter planes struck a hideout of the militant group in Logar province, the military said in a statement on Tuesday.
Acting on a tip off, the planes targeted the hideout in Kozachatrakai area of the restive Azra district late Monday night, killing 12 armed militants on the spot and injuring three others, Xinhua news agency quoted the statement as saying.
Seven motorbikes and a number of arms and ammunitions were also destroyed during the airstrikes, the statement added.
Taliban militants have intensified activities since the formal start of the U.-led forces pull out from Afghanistan on May 1 and are active in parts of Logar province. (ANI)
