On July 15, 2021, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested Mahmudul Hasan Gunabi aka Hasan, the ‘spiritual leader’ of banned Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT)/ Ansar al-Islam from the Shah Ali area of Dhaka city. Gunabi used to deliver religious speeches at different madrasas (seminaries) to identify a target group, lure them into militancy and train them in secret dens in […]

In the second ever worst ever attack, in terms of fatalities, targeting Chinese nationals and projects in Pakistan, a vehicle driven by a suicide attacker and laden with explosives rammed a convoy of Chinese workers headed to the Dasu Hydropower Plant project site at Dasu in the Upper Kohistan District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), killing at least 13 persons, including […]

While a ceasefire is still elusive, two days of talks in Doha, Qatar, between the Afghan government and Taliban delegations wrapped up on a somewhat positive note after both sides agreed to continue negotiations. Delegates from both sides met late Sunday night – again behind closed doors. Abdullah Abdullah, Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR), who headed […]

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid on Sunday denied claims that the daughter of Afghanistan’s ambassador to Pakistan in Islamabad had been abducted, saying it was an “international racket” led by Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) to defame Pakistan. Ambassador Najibullah Alikhil’s daughter, Silsila Alikhil, was allegedly kidnapped on Friday from the capital’s commercial hub by unidentified persons, […]

Officials confirmed that Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) have retaken control of two districts in Helmand and Samangan provinces in the past 24 hours. According to the officials Garmsir district in Helmand and Dara-i-Sawf in Samangan provinces were reclaimed by the ANDSF. “Due to the operations of security, and uprising forces, the Dara-i-Sawf district has been recaptured,” said […]

Reuters journalist Danish Siddiqui was killed on Friday while covering a clash between Afghan security forces and Taliban fighters near a border crossing with Pakistan, an Afghan commander said. Afghan special forces had been fighting to retake the main market area of Spin Boldak when Siddiqui and a senior Afghan officer were killed in what they described as Taliban crossfire, […]

Pakistan’s military rescued five telecommunications workers kidnapped by Islamist militants last month close to the Afghan border in a series of operations in which two soldiers were killed, the military said on Friday. Northwest Pakistan’s border regions have become relatively peaceful after years of violence but Pakistani Taliban militants have been more active recently amid concern that surging violence in […]

An Afghan military pilot was killed in an attack by unknown armed men in northern Parwan province on Friday, sources said. Nusrat Koshan, an Afghan Air Force officer, was killed at around 6:30 Friday evening during a skirmish with armed men in the Bagram district of the province, sources added. Bagram Governor Lala Shirin Raufi told Ariana News that the […]

Aziz-ur-Rahman Tawab, Deputy Governor of Kapisa, was killed during clashes between the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) and Taliban militants in Najrab district of the province on Friday, police confirmed. Abdul Shayaq Shorish, a spokesman for Kapisa police, told Ariana News that Tawab was killed in the Dare Afghania area of the district on Friday morning. Tawab and […]

Prolonging the UK military presence in Afghanistan would not have helped so long as the fundamental problem of the absence of a strategy remained unaddressed. But the manner of leaving and what follows still matter a great deal to the UK. It feels a lot like 1989. Once again, the insurgents are threatening Kabul. Once again, the discussion is about […]