Archive for February, 2023

Pakistani troops kill 2 militants in raid near Afghan border

Pakistani troops on Friday raided a militant hideout in a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban militant group, in the country’s northwest and near the border with Afghanistan, the military said. The raid triggered a shootout that killed that killed two militants. The shootout in North Waziristan, a district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, came days after a suicide bomber attacked […]

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India raises defence budget to $72.6 bln amid tensions with China

India proposed on Wednesday 5.94 trillion rupees ($72.6 billion) in defence spending for the 2023-24 financial year, 13% up from the previous period’s initial estimates, aiming to add more fighter jets and roads along its tense border with China, Reuters reported. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman allocated 1.63 trillion rupees for defence capital outlays – an expenditure that would include new […]

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Afghanistan watchdog: US must consider whether aid dollars are helping Taliban

The government’s watchdog for Afghanistan reconstruction said Thursday that the Taliban is growing ever more oppressive, and lawmakers need to consider whether too many U.S. aid dollars are ending up in their hands. The report to Congress by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, is an update for lawmakers on rebuilding and aid efforts following the U.S. […]

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Iran hoping to establish trade hub in Afghanistan

Iran’s deputy minister of trade Mohammad Mousavi said Tuesday in a meeting that Tehran is considering setting up a trade center in Afghanistan in the near future. According to Mehr News Agency, Mousavi expressed hope that the establishment of this center will strengthen ties between Kabul and Tehran. He did not however say where the center would be situated. Addressing […]

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Muttaqi tells Pakistan to stop blaming Afghanistan for its insecurity

Referring to Pakistan’s concerns about terrorism threats emanating from Afghanistan, Amir Khan Muttaqi, Foreign Minister of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), on Wednesday called on Islamabad to stop blaming Afghanistan for insecurity. Speaking at a ceremony to inaugurate a drug addiction treatment center in Kabul, Muttaqi said that the root of Pakistan’s security problems is in the country itself […]

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US general says country will be at war with China in 2025

A U.S. general said in a memo on Friday that he believes the country will be at war with China by 2025, according to several news outlets that obtained a copy of the communication, The Hill reported. “I hope I am wrong,” Gen. Mike Minihan, a four-star Air Force general who leads the Air Mobility Command (AMC), said in the […]

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Pakistan mosque bombing death toll rises to 87

The death toll in the suicide bombing that tore through a mosque in Pakistan rose to 87 on Tuesday, a hospital official said, a day after the one of the biggest attacks in the unstable South Asian nation, Reuters reported. The attack occurred in one of the most fortified areas of the northwestern Peshawar city, which houses offices of the […]

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Russia, Pakistan to make use of SCO capabilities to deal with Afghanistan

Russia and Pakistan to engage the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) capabilities to assist the situation in Afghanistan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during a press conference after talks with his Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in Moscow on Monday. “We have talked about the situation in Afghanistan a lot; this is directly connected to the goal of elimination of […]

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