Taliban security forces in Afghanistan have reportedly killed an Islamic State operative and captured several others during overnight raids on the militant group’s bases near the border with Iran. “important network” of the regional branch of Islamic State known as Islamic State-Khorasan, or IS-K, said a Taliban-affiliated media outlet Friday. The network was involved in some of the recent attacks […]

The US Justice Department has filed a chargesheet against an Indian national, Nikhil Gupta, in connection with an alleged assassination plot targeting a Sikh separatist leader, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun who lives in New York. According to the Justice Department, Gupta was arrested on June 30 in the Czech Republic and is awaiting extradition to the US. He faces up to […]

On November 29, 2023, the Government of India (GoI) and Government of Manipur signed a Peace Agreement with the United National Liberation Front (UNLF), in New Delhi. A Union Ministry of Home Affairs (UMHA) release noted, “While political settlements have been finalised with several ethnic armed groups of the North East as part of conflict resolution initiatives of Government of […]

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a bomb attack at a Catholic Mass on Sunday that killed four people and injured dozens in the southern Philippines, counter-terrorism experts said. The explosion occurred at 7:30 a.m. at the Mindanao State University gymnasium in Marawi city, which was taken over by militants linked to IS in 2017. During the five-month battle […]

It took three journalists nearly 5,000 words to convey a single point, namely that an alleged Indian intelligence agent is supposedly behind a site that sometimes criticizes anti-Indian Americans. That’s it. Everything else was just dramatic flair and fluff to manipulate naïve readers into thinking that the Indian government is meddling in US affairs when it’s actually the US that’s […]

In August 2023, the administration of Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr released its National Security Policy (NSP). For the third consecutive time, the Philippine national government released such a document – the first was in 2011 under the late President Benigno S. Aquino III, and the second was in 2017 during the Rodrigo R. Duterte presidency. There are differences […]

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shows no sign of a peaceful conclusion. Meanwhile, the world remains focused on Israel’s war on Gaza. Sometimes it seems that policymakers have all but forgotten about Afghanistan. After taking power more than two years ago, the Taliban have learned that resisting is much easier than governing. There is a nationwide shortage of basic medical supplies. […]

The growing convergence of India and the United States’ (US) perspectives on the Middle East is one of the main signals from the fifth iteration of the ‘two plus two’ meeting on 10 November 2023 in New Delhi. The defence and foreign ministers of the two countries were unambiguous in condemning Hamas terror, emphasising Israel’s right to self-defence while observing […]

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) has condemned the United States imposing sanctions against two of its officials, saying sanctioning is not the solution to any problem. Fariduddin Mahmood, head of the Afghanistan Academy of Sciences, and Khalid Hanafi, acting minister for the propagation of virtue and prevention of vice, were on Friday sanctioned by the US Treasury Department over […]

The Islamic Emirate’s spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid says the caretaker government has eradicated corruption in all government institutions and efforts are underway to eradicate corruption in non-governmental sectors as well. Marking International Anti-Corruption Day in Kabul, Mujahid said: “While corruption is close to zero, in the lower levels maybe unworthy people commit corruption, but the struggle is still ongoing.” “But the […]