[Pick of the Week]

Taliban takes over the Power in Kabul ‘Peacefully’ as the ‘former’ President Ashraf Gani flew Tajikistan

Rarely has an American president’s predictions been so wrong (or at least pretended so), so fast, so convincingly as President Biden on Afghanistan.-Axios.

However, the present condition in ‘DC’ is not much different from last year when it got prey to Coronavirus. The Taliban is entering the Afghanistan capital, Kabul, “from all sides,” a senior Afghan official told Reuters. Jalalabad, the last major city besides the capital not held by the Taliban, fell earlier.

Afghan forces today surrendered Bagram Air Base, the Grand Central of America’s longest war, to the Taliban.

The most coverage this week went to developments in Afganistan, while here concentration will be only on impact on India.

Behind the scenes

The core diplomatic team left in Kabul will be small enough to be quickly evacuated, Jonathan Swan and Glen Johnson report.

“Every day counts, and they’re using the time to process SIVs [Special Immigrant Visas] for Afghans and evacuate civilian personnel,” an administration official told us.
“Aug. 31^st is a long way from now,” the official added. “We’re not going to be bullied out of there.”

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said on Fri: “[I]f you just look at what the Taliban’s been doing, you can see that they are trying to isolate Kabul.”

“It is not unlike the way they’ve operated in other places of the country, isolating provincial capitals, and sometimes being able to force a surrender without necessarily much bloodshed.”

What’s next: Diplomats are making contingency plans with other countries to see if they’d be willing to take in Afghans who helped with the U.S. war effort, and need to be evacuated under fear of Taliban retribution.

Qatar is the big one. Conversations are happening with Kuwait and other countries, which are considering housing smaller numbers of Afghans for shorter periods.

We asked a U.S. official, who’s in touch with a former contact in Kabul, how locally employed staff (LES) — Afghans working for the U.S. — are faring.

“LES are freaking out,” the contact replied. “Everyone wants to get out of this country. … I’m so worried about my family.”

In short: 2001: enter Afghanistan to oust Taliban

Spent $3 trillion
2,41,000 people killed
2442 US soldiers lost
more than 20000 US soldiers wounded
Spend $90 billion in the name of preparing Afghan forces

2021: Leave without a plan, hand Afganistan back to the Taliban

[Headlines in India]

Taliban takes control of the airport in Afghanistan’s Kunduz, seizes chopper gifted by India-ThePrint: One of the four attack helicopters supplied by India to Afghanistan in 2019 has been seized by the Taliban after they took over the airport in Kunduz, the northern provincial capital of the country. The Mi-24V attack helicopter was among the four helicopters given in 2019 under a deal between Afghanistan and Belarus but financed by India.

Afghans, Indians land in Delhi with an ache in their heart, but a sense of relief: On a day the Taliban took complete control of Afghanistan, an Air India flight carrying 129 passengers from Kabul landed at New Delhi around 8 pm.

The rise and fall of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani: “To avoid bloodshed, I thought it would be better to leave,” Ghani said on Facebook in his first comments. “The Taliban have won with the judgment of their swords and guns, and are now responsible for the honor, property, and self-preservation of their countrymen,” he said in a statement posted to Facebook.

India has divergences with the US on Afghanistan: S Jaishankar: Whether it is the Indian leadership or the average Indian, “we aspire to bigger things,” said foreign minister S Jaishankar, addressing the India@75: The Freedom Summit organized by Times Now on Sun. The Quad, he said, has become an important grouping in the 21^st century which is more multipolar.

Taliban declares ‘war is over’ as president and diplomats flee Kabul: “Today (Sun) is a great day for the Afghan people and the mujahideen. They have witnessed the fruits of their efforts and their sacrifices for 20 years,” Mohammad Naeem, the spokesman for the Taliban’s political office, told Al Jazeera TV. “Thanks to God, the war is over in the country.”

Afghan President Ghani flees to Tajikistan: Three Afghan officials informed news agency The Associated Press that the Taliban have entered the outskirts of the capital, Kabul. Speaking on the condition of anonymity as they weren’t authorized to release the information, the officials said there hadn’t been any fighting yet.

‘Will pull India into a vortex’ —Delhi is unlikely to heed ‘Afghan demand for air support’: While no active military aid is being discussed, ‘benign support’ like maintenance of equipment, training, and spare parts has been under discussion between India and Afghanistan.

Government sources said any active Indian military intervention in Afghanistan is not being considered at any level, adding that the focus right now is to ensure peace is maintained through dialogue.
However, sources added, “benign support”, like maintenance of military equipment, training, and spare parts are issues that are always under discussion.
Sources in the govt, as well as the security and defense establishment, said any military involvement in the war-torn country will “pull India into a vortex”.
The comments follow requests from the Afghan govt that India provide “robust air support” — airpower is seen to be a crucial factor in the battle against the Taliban — to aid Kabul’s efforts to address the nation’s deteriorating security situation.
The demand is being “aggressively pushed” by Kabul in light of concerns that the Taliban will escalate the level of violence once international troops complete their drawdown by Aug 31^st, ThePrint reported citing Afghan officials on the condition of anonymity.
Indian govt sources didn’t respond to a query on whether such a request has been made by Kabul. However, they pointed out that the official stand is that there will be no Indian boots on the ground in Afghanistan.
In 2017, then Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had made the same statement amid the US calls for Indian participation in strengthening Afghanistan’s security situation, and the same was reiterated by Army chief Gen M.M. Naravane earlier this year.

‘Benign support vs active support’

Sources said India, which has also initiated talks with the Taliban, would not like to be “overtly seen doing anything” in Afghanistan. “Right now, the approach is to talk to everybody and actively observe the developments,” a source said.
Last month, Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen said in an interview that India should not give any military support to the current Afghan govt.
ThePrint had earlier made it clear that while New Delhi may look at extending any technical help the Afghan forces need to maintain the equipment India had given them in the past, there are no plans to send any fresh military systems.
Over the past few years, India has gifted four Mi-24V attack helicopters to the Afghan Air Force as well as three Cheetah light utility helicopters, among other equipment.
Discussing India’s potential role in Afghanistan in the coming days, sources said training and maintenance issues are something that could be looked into. Afghan military officers do get trained in India at various training establishments.

India has played a constructive role in Afghanistan in the past, says Pentagon: Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said India has played a role in training & infrastructure improvements in Afghanistan and such effort to help maintain stability is always welcome.

India to temporarily close Mazar-e-Sharif consulate in Afghanistan, evacuate citizens & diplomats: With the Mazar-e-Sharif consulate shutting down, India has closed all four consulates in Afghanistan in wake of the worsening security situation due to the resurgence of Taliban.

China courts the Taliban in Afghanistan

The world has been left stunned at images of the Taliban’s blitzkrieg across Afghanistan, as that country’s military evaporated with remarkable swiftness. The USA’s legacy there has been irreparably damaged, so will China be able to take advantage as the Taliban installs itself in Kabul?
On 28 July, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met formally in Tianjin with a 9-member Taliban delegation, including Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the hardline Muslim group’s co-founder and deputy leader.
The meeting itself was not a surprise – for the Taliban has been in China previously for meetings – but the way China publicized it was.
Indeed, Wang publicly acknowledged the Taliban as “a crucial military and political force in Afghanistan that is expected to play an important role in the peace, reconciliation and reconstruction process of the country”.
Such a Chinese affirmation was unprecedented, giving the Taliban much-needed legitimacy on the international stage. Remember that many countries still define the Taliban as a terrorist organization.
Andrew Small, an Associate Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said:
- China does not tend to perceive Afghanistan through the prism of opportunities; it is almost entirely about managing threats.
- The US presence was understood as a geopolitical threat, much like the Soviet military presence in the 1980s, but Beijing had grown to see it as the lesser of two evils … Beijing certainly hoped that the US would withdraw from the region – but only after a peace deal had been brokered.
- China is now anxious on multiple counts. Its perennial concern, going back to the Taliban’s last time in power, is the potential for Afghanistan to become a safe haven for militant groups targeting China.
- Chinese economic and political interests in the wider region have grown considerably since then, though, and Beijing is also worried about the spillover effects in neighboring countries, particularly Pakistan.

The TTP Has Redefined Its Goals

The leader of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Noor Wali Mehsud, said in a recent interview with CNN that his group will continue its “war against Pakistan’s security forces” and its goal is to “take control of the border regions and make them independent.” In his interview, Mehsud also admitted that his group has a good relationship with the Afghan Taliban and hopes to benefit from their victories across the border.

Interestingly, from the Afghanistan Pew Survey conducted in non-Taliban times:

99% say they want Sharia
96% say converting others to Islam is a duty
94% say wife always obliged to obey the husband
85% say stoning must be for adultery
79% say death must for apostasy
39% say suicide bombing justified

It has appeared in social media and mainstream media that so many Pakistani officials and experts reveling in the Taliban’s victory and covering themselves in glory. Nevertheless, the Questions will take time to find the answer, as to how did Afghanistan forces collapse so easily? How so-called US intelligence failed miserably at least it seems? Who is behind the curtains and provided supports Taliban? Or was it all scripted well before the ‘peaceful transfer of power’ happened?

Amit Shah welcomes PM Modi’s decision to observe August 14 as Partition Horrors Remembrance Day ANI

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to observe Aug 14 as ‘Partition Horrors Remembrance Day’.

“The wound of the partition of the country and the grief of losing loved ones cannot be described in words.

I am sure that ‘Partition Horrors RemembranceDay’ will strengthen peace, love, and unity by eliminating the ill-will of discrimination and malice from society”, tweeted Shah.

Earlier on Sat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that in memory of the struggles and sacrifices of our people, Aug 14 will be observed as Partition Horrors Remembrance Day.

In a series of tweets, the PM said, “Partition’s pains can never be forgotten. Millions of our sisters and brothers were displaced and many lost their lives due to mindless hate and violence.

In memory of the struggles and sacrifices of our people, Aug 14^th will be observed as Partition Horrors Remembrance Day.” “May the #PartitionHorrorsRemembranceDay keep reminding us of the need to remove the poison of social divisions, disharmony and further strengthen the spirit of oneness, social harmony, and human empowerment,” the Prime Minister tweeted.

India will be celebrating the 75^th year of Independence on Sun.

The day is recognized as that of national pride and honor, with the Prime Minister hoisting the flag and addressing the country from the Red Fort every year. A day before Independence Day, the President of the country delivers a televised ‘Address to the Nation’.

6 Army personnel awarded Shaurya Chakra, 4 Bar to Sena Medal, 116 Sena Medal on eve of I-Day ANI

Union Defence Ministry conferred gallantry awards to Army personnel on the occasion of Independence Day wherein 6 Army personnel have been awarded Shaurya Chakra, 4 awarded Bar to Sena Medal, 116 Sena Medal, and 28 Mention in Dispatches. The six Army personnel who have been conferred Shaurya Chakra are Major Arun Kumar Pandey, Major Ravi Kumar Chaudhary, Captain Ashutosh Kumar (Posthumous), Captain Vikas Khatri, RFN Mukesh Kumar, SEP Neeraj Ahlawat.

In J&K: Terrorists open fire at BSF convoy in J&K’s Kulgam, encounter underway

An encounter broke out between terrorists and security personnel on Thu after the ultras open firing at a Border Security Force convoy in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kulgam district, officials said. The convoy was headed for Srinagar from Jammu when it was attacked, they said.

Journalist Aadil Farooq was arrested with 2 grenades by CRPF near Lalchowk in Srinagar, Kashmir. Minutes after Grenade attack near Amira Kadal. Being interrogated by senior police officers right now. A journalist working as a Sub-Editor with CNS News Agency in Press Enclave. BJP Sarpanch Ghulam Rasool Bhat and his wife Jawahara Banoo were killed by terrorists inside their house in Lalchowk of South Kashmir’s Anantnag. Terrorists escaped after the terror attack. Cold-blooded murder by Pakistan-sponsored Islamist terrorists.

Shillong violence: Meghalaya home minister resigns, curfew clamped in city

Meghalaya home minister Lahkmen Rymbui has resigned amid violence in Shillong over a police encounter with a former militant, officials said on Sun. Curfew was imposed in Shillong and mobile internet stopped in at least four districts of Meghalaya on Sunday amid vandalism and arson over the police encounter of a top militant leader, who had surrendered, officials said.

Body of one of 2 pilots found in Ranjit Sagar lake 2 weeks after Army helicopter crash

The helicopter had crashed on 3 Aug when it was carrying out a training sortie. Search and rescue operation for the mortal remains of the second pilot continues, military sources said.
The mortal remains of one of the two pilots of an Army helicopter that crashed into the Ranjit Sagar Dam lake near Pathankot nearly two weeks ago were found, military sources said on Sunday.
The search and rescue operation for the mortal remains of the second pilot continues, they said.
“Mortal remains of Lt Col AS Baath retrieved from a depth of 75.9 m at 6:19 pm from the Ranjit Sagar lake. Efforts to retrieve mortal remains of the second pilot continue,” an official report said.

The Rudra helicopter belonging to the Army Aviation wing had crashed into the lake on August 3 when it was carrying out a training sortie.

[INTERNATIONAL]

Pakistan’s accusation against India on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa terror attack are ‘lies’, MEA says

Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had alleged that India and Afghanistan were behind last month’s attack on a bus that killed 13 people, including Chinese engineers.
India on Fri described as “lies” Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s allegations that it was involved in last month’s suicide attack on a bus in the country’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that killed nine Chinese engineers and four others.
In a sharp reaction, Spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs Arindam Bagchi said it was yet another attempt by Pakistan to malign India in a bid to deflect international attention from its role as the “epicenter” of regional instability and a “safe haven” for proscribed terrorists.

“This is yet another attempt by Pakistan to malign India, in a bid to deflect international attention from its role as the epicenter of regional instability and a safe haven for proscribed terrorists,” Bagchi added.

Eight-year-old becomes the youngest person charged with blasphemy in Pakistan

Hindu boy faces possible death penalty after being accused of intentionally urinating in a madrassa library

An eight-year-old Hindu boy is being held in protective police custody in east Pakistan after becoming the youngest person ever to be charged with blasphemy in the country.
The boy’s family is in hiding and many of the Hindu community in the conservative district of Rahim Yar Khan, in Punjab, have fled their homes after a Muslim crowd attacked a Hindu temple after the boy’s release on bail last week. Troops were deployed to the area to quell any further unrest.
On Sat, 20 people were arrested in connection with the temple attack.

The boy is accused of intentionally urinating on a carpet in the library of a madrassa, where religious books were kept, last month. Blasphemy charges can carry the death penalty.

In a Gist