Budget 2018-19

  Modi and Putin emphasised the central role of the UN in Afghanistan India and Russia on Monday underlined that the Afghan soil should not be used for sheltering, training, planning or financing any terrorist groups including the ISIS, the Al-Qaeda and the  Lashkar-e-Taiba  (LeT), and decided to provide immediate humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people. In their summit talks, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin also pitched for the formation of a truly inclusive government in Kabul and reiterated their strong support for a peaceful, secure and stable Afghanistan, according to a joint statement. The mentioning of LeT in the statement assumes significance as it reflects Russia’s understanding of India’s concerns over the possible risk that the Pakistan-based terror groups pose after the Taliban’s capture of power in Kabul. The statement said the leaders welcomed the close coordination between India and Russia on Afghanistan, including thr...

  Australia’s SBS TV has quoted a Taliban spokesperson as saying that women’s sports and women’s cricket specifically will be banned by his group in Afghanistan Australia’s SBS TV has quoted a  Taliban  spokesperson as saying that women’s sports and women’s cricket specifically will be banned by his group in Afghanistan “In cricket, they might face a situation where their face and body will not be covered. Islam does not allow women to be seen like this,” the network quoted Ahmadullah Wasiq, the deputy head of the Taliban’s cultural commission, as saying. “It is the media era, and there will be photos and videos, and then people watch it. Islam and the Islamic Emirate do not allow women to play cricket or play the kind of sports where they get exposed.” Wasiq last month told SBS that the Taliban would allow men’s cricket to continue and that it has given approval for the men’s national team to travel to Australia for a test match in November. But in a state...

  United States says concerned by some Cabinet members The Taliban drew from its inner high echelons to fill top posts in Afghanistan’s new government on Tuesday, including an associate of the Islamist militant group’s founder as premier and a wanted man on a U.S. terrorism list as interior minister. World powers have told the Taliban the key to peace and development is an inclusive government that would back up its pledges of a more conciliatory approach, upholding human rights, after a previous 1996-2001 period in power marked by bloody vendettas and oppression of women. Taliban supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada, in his first public statement since the Aug. 15 seizure of the capital Kabul by the insurgents, said the  Taliban  were committed to all international laws, treaties and commitments not in conflict with Islamic law. “In the future, all matters of governance and life in Afghanistan will be regulated by the laws of the Holy Sharia,” he said in a statement, in...

  However, Massoud remained defiant and said his force, drawn from the remnants of the regular Afghan army as well as local militia fighters, was still fighting The Taliban claimed victory on Monday in the last part of Afghanistan still holding out against their rule, declaring that the capture of the Panjshir valley completed their takeover of the country and they would unveil a new government soon. Pictures on social media showed Taliban members standing in front of the gate of the Panjshir provincial governor’s compound after days of fighting with the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRFA), commanded by Panjshiri leader Ahmad Massoud. “Panjshir, which was the last hideout of the escapee enemy, is captured,”  T aliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told a news conference. However, Massoud remained defiant, and said his force, drawn from the remnants of the regular Afghan army as well as local militia fighters, was still fig...

  The Taliban will be on uncertain ground as they declare legitimacy, but no pretender to Afghanistan’s troubled throne is likely to offer a national alternative Unsurprisingly, the Taliban’s rapid takeover of power across  Afghanistan  has prompted headlines about a renewed “civil war”. This is misleading, however. “Civil war” implies a situation where an insurgent movement is taking on a ruling government. But in 2001, it was not just the US-backed Northern Alliance that removed the Taliban from Kabul – other local commanders and political leaders were challenging their authority too. And in 2021, the Taliban swept to power by offering local groups incentives to cooperate or persuading them to stand aside. Now that the Taliban try to establish a government and ruling institutions, it is possible that these groups may resist being co-opted. They may bristle at a lack of autonomy, or see political and economic benefit in opposition to th...

  Trump has slammed Biden on his Afghan policy and expressed concerns that thousands of terrorists might have been flown out of Afghanistan as part of the evacuation process Former US President Donald Trump has slammed his successor Joe Biden on his Afghan policy and expressed concerns that thousands of terrorists might have been flown out of Afghanistan as part of the evacuation process. Biden surrendered Afghanistan to terrorists and left thousands of Americans for dead by pulling out the military before our citizens, Trump said in a statement on Tuesday. Now we are learning that out of the 26,000 people who have been evacuated, only 4,000 are Americans. You can be sure, the   Taliban ,  who are now in complete control, didn’t allow the best and brightest to board these evacuation flights. Instead, we can only imagine how many thousands of terrorists have been airlifted out of Afghanistan and into neighbourhoods around t...

  There is no meaningful evidence that the Taliban are feeling any existential crisis, much less that they care about making money or running an economy Joe Biden doesn’t know what to make of the Taliban. Asked in an ABC News interview last week if he thought the Afghan insurgents had changed, the U.S. president gave a tortured answer that amounted to, “Yes, no and maybe.” It is worth examining his exchange with George Stephanopoulos in some detail for a full appreciation of Biden’s self-delusion: Q: What happens now in Afghanistan? Do you believe the Taliban have changed? A: No. I think… let me put it this way: I think they’re going through sort of an existential crisis about do they want to be recognized by the international community as being a legitimate government. I’m not sure they do. Q: They care about their beliefs more? B: Well, they do. But they also care about whether they have food to eat, whether they have an income that th...

  The German military says a firefight broke out at the Kabul airport’s north gate early on Monday between Afghan security forces and unknown attackers. The German military says a firefight broke out at the Kabul airport’s north gate early on Monday between Afghan security forces and unknown attackers The military said in a tweet that one Afghan security officer was killed and another three were wounded in the early morning incident. It said that U.S. and German forces then also got involved, and that there were no injuries to German soldiers. There was no further information and it wasn’t known who the attackers were. The Taliban, who are manning the outside perimeters of the  Kabul airport,  have until now not opened fire on NATO or Afghan troops within. Monday’s incident took place after at least seven Afghans died in a panicked crush of people trying to enter Kabul’s international airport on Sunday, the British military said. Thousands were still trying to f...

  The Afghan capital’s residents seemed doubtful about their future, pondering whether the current peace could be a lull before storm Although the security situation is comparatively stable compared when the Taliban took over Kabul on August 15, the Afghan capital’s residents seemed doubtful about their future, pondering whether the current peace could be a lull before storm. Since Kabul’s fall to the Taliban, many government offices, schools and universities have remained closed. The Taliban has however, repeatedly called upon government employees to return to their offices and resume their work normally, but many offices in the government and private sectors including banks, schools and universities have been out of business. “Since last Sunday I have not been to my office as no one knows what would happen next hour or in the afternoon,” a Kabul resident Noor Khan told Xinhua news agency on Sunday. The 37-year-old Khan, an employee of the Passport Department i...

  Pakistan’s Balochistan province, battered by a harsh winter, a locust invasion, COVID-19, and drought-like conditions, faces a food emergency for about 500,000 people, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday Pakistan ‘s Balochistan province, battered by a harsh winter, a locust invasion, COVID-19, and drought-like conditions, faces a food emergency for about 500,000 people, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday. “An estimated 500,000 people are facing crisis or emergency levels of food insecurity while another 100,000 people require immediate life-saving assistance. The dry spell and reduced water availability are destroying crops and threatening the survival of livestock which are the main livelihood and food source for many families in the affected areas,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said. Meteorologists forecast drought-like conditions through the end of the year for southwestern Balochistan, bordering Iran and Afghanistan. “Low rainfall during Octobe...

  The Covid-19 crisis “has revealed how unequal our societies are,” said United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in his message released on Monday for the World Health Day The Covid-19 crisis “has revealed how unequal our societies are,” said United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in his message released on Monday for the World Health Day. Highlighting the inequalities and injustices that have been apparent throughout the pandemic, the UN chief said in his message for the day to be marked on Wednesday that the vast majority of vaccine doses administered so far have been confined to “a few wealthy countries” or those producing the shots cleared for distribution, the Xinhua news agency reported. “Within countries, illness and death from Covid-19 has been higher among people and communities that contend with poverty, unfavourable living and working conditions, discrimination and social exclusion,” said Guterres. Thanks to the COVAX initiative, the UN backed intern...