Nation states are habitually doomed to defeat their best interests. Conditions of mad instability are fostered. Arms sales take place, regimes get propped up or abandoned, and the people under them endure and suffer, awaiting the next criminal regime change. Nothing is more counter-intuitive than the effort to isolate, cripple and strangulate the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. For all the […]

On January 26, 2022, Provincial Assembly Member Ashok Yadav was injured when cadres of the C.K. Raut-led Janamat Party attacked his vehicle in front of the Janaki temple in Janakpurdham city of Dhanusa District. Yadav’s vehicle was attacked and vandalized by Janamat Party cadres in front of the Janaki temple while he was going to cast his vote in the […]

On February 20, 2022, two Indo-Tibetan Border Police personnel were injured in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) explosion in Wangoo Tera area of Kakching District. On February 12, 2022, an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) was detonated inside the Ukhrul Forest Division Office in the Phungreitang area of Ukhrul town. No casualty was reported in the incident. On February 11, 2022, […]

Entering its second year, the Biden administration has failed to produce a coherent economic policy for the Indo-Pacific. Meanwhile, two major regional trade agreements are moving forward. US businesses and workers will increasingly suffer from legal economic discrimination from these new regional trade rules of the road — the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Regional […]

Meezan Bank (MEBL) has reported its highest ever quarterly profit of Rs8.8 billion (EPS: Rs5.4) 4Q2021, up 115%YoY. The earnings remained higher than industry expectation due to strong growth in Net spread earned and other income. Net spread earned during 4Q2021 was reported at Rs20.4 billion, up 35%YoY led by strong deposit growth and increasing low cost deposits. On QoQ […]

The head of Britain’s domestic intelligence service said that Afghanistan is becoming a hotbed for terrorism. A British man was one of two suspected ISIS recruits caught while trying to enter Afghanistan this month. Ken McCallum, the director general of MI5, said the service has evidence of terrorist groups regrouping in Afghanistan and recruits are travelling to join them. In […]

The Taliban are creating a “grand army” for Afghanistan that will include officers and troops who served the old regime, the official tasked with overseeing the military’s transformation said Monday. Latifullah Hakimi, head of the Taliban’s Ranks Clearance Commission, also told a news conference they had repaired half the 81 helicopters and planes supposedly rendered unserviceable by US-led forces during […]

A recent UN report and other worrying signs point to a likely surge in both an al-Qaeda and Islamic State presence in Afghanistan in the six months since the Taliban has been in power. The rented home where the now-defunct Iraqi Islamic State (IS) leader known as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi was either blown up or blew himself up during […]

The United Nations has removed former Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani from the list of heads of state. The list, published on the official website of the United Nations, also removes the name of Ghani’s wife, Rula Ghani, as Afghanistan’s first lady. However, the post of President of Afghanistan is listed as “President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan”. Similarly, […]

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan will fly to Moscow this week to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, Islamabad confirmed on Monday – the first such trip by a Pakistani leader in two decades. The two-day visit, starting on Wednesday, was planned before the current crisis over Ukraine. “During the Summit meeting, the two leaders will review the entire array of […]