China stands firmly embedded in 2022 in Pakistan’ Army’s strategic calculus despite unfolding geopolitical environment heavily stacked against China and thereby devaluing Pakistan Army’s strategic- asset worth to United States. In 2022, the United States should not be misled into the belief that Pakistan Army’s strategic- asset value can be retrieved to serve United States security interests again. Pakistan in […]

Islamabad must tread carefully with its long-time Taliban allies back in power in Kabul. Pitfalls lie ahead for Pakistan’s domestic security and its foreign relations. The Pakistani government should encourage Afghanistan’s new authorities down the path of compromise with international demands regarding rights and counter-terrorism. What’s new? Pakistan faces difficult challenges in shaping policy toward Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Though Pakistan continues to […]

Twin attacks by separatists on Pakistani military posts in the volatile southwestern Baluchistan province triggered intense firefights that lasted hours and killed seven soldiers and 13 assailants, Pakistan’s interior minister and the military said Thursday. A recently formed separatist group, the Baluchistan Nationalist Army, had claimed responsibility for the attacks late Wednesday in a post on Twitter. In one of […]

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s (IEA) Council of Ministers has issued a decree banning military personnel from entering amusement parks when in uniform, and carrying weapons. A spokesman for the IEA, Zabihullah Mujahid, said on Twitter: “Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate are not allowed to enter amusement parks with weapons, military uniforms and vehicles.” “The Mujahideen are obliged to abide […]

Moscow views the idea of Russia’s participation in the TAPI (Turkmenistan – Afghanistan – Pakistan – India) gas pipeline project as “politically attractive,” special envoy of the Russian President Zamir Kabulov told TASS in an interview. “Such perspective appears politically attractive. The matters of supporting security for this project earlier considered to be the most challenging have lost their acuteness […]

Walking down the corridors of the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) library in the 1980s, one could barely escape meeting scholars with intellectual acumen moving around. As a novice in foreign affairs, I too had unintended encounters with many of them. The Sapru House (ICWA building) in New Delhi was already known as an international affairs public sphere, with […]

Pakistan National Security Adviser (NSA) Moeed Yusuf has claimed Thursday that Afghan soil was still being used against Pakistan, Dawn News reported. Briefing Pakistan’s National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Yusuf has also claimed that “organized terrorist networks” are operating in the country. “Had a very productive discussion on the National Security Policy (NSP) and Afghanistan. I am grateful […]

U.K. anti-terrorism police arrested two more men in Manchester Wednesday in connection with their investigation of a British man who took Jewish worshippers hostage at a Texas synagogue. Four of the six arrested are still in custody. British citizen Malik Faisal Akram, 44, took four people hostage at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, on Jan. 15. The nearly 11-hour […]

Kazakstan’s wealth is in full display in Aktau. Originally a Soviet city built around uranium mining, the expanse sprawling along the Caspian Sea shore is today at the core of the country’s oil and gas industry. But the city’s vast riches are not enjoyed by all its inhabitants. Aina Akisheva, a 56-year-old cook, makes 200,000 tenge a month (458 US […]

On January 20, 2022, three persons were killed and over 33 were injured in a bomb explosion near Pan Mandi in the New Anarkali Bazar area of Lahore, the provincial capital of Punjab. The Baloch Nationalist Army (BNA)’s spokesperson Mureed Baloch claimed that the target of the blast were the Habib Bank employees. The BNA was formed earlier this month […]