US special envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad begins a two-day visit to India on Thursday, his first after being appointed to the post in September 2018. Khalilzad is expected to discuss US plans for withdrawing troops from the country as well as the efforts that are underway to bring the hardline Taliban to the talks table.

Awami National Party (ANP) head Asfandyar Wali Khan has urged the regional countries to make the Afghan government part of the ongoing peace process to bring stability to the region. He was talking to a delegation from Afghanistan Wednesday at his residence in Wali Bagh in Charsadda district.

A commander of the Taliban group Mullah Abdul Basir and his twenty fighters have been killed in an airstrike in northern Balkh province of Afghanistan. The 209th Shaheen Corps of the Afghan Military in the North in a statement said the airstrike was carried out by coalition forces late on afternoon evening.