Important Picks of the Day

NATIONAL

‘Challenge for us’, says defense minister Rajnath Singh on Taliban takeover in Afghanistan

“These situations have forced our country to rethink its strategy. We are changing our strategy and the formation of QUAD underlines this strategy,” Singh said.

Rs 14K cr ‘Make in India’ boost for Indian Army through Akash

In a major boost to ‘Make in India’ in the defence sector, the Indian Army has sent proposals worth around Rs 14,000 crore to acquire two regiments of the Akash-S air defence missile system and 25 Advanced Light Helicopters

Army foils infiltration bid along LoC in J&K’s Poonch, 1 terrorist killed

Army troops detected the infiltration bid by use of the integrated surveillance grid in the Poonch sector early Mon, defense spokesman Lt Col Devender Anand said.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh hits out at Pak, China

The current happenings in Afghanistan have raised new security questions, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said Mon, asserting the Central government is alert and capable of dealing with any situation. He also said no anti-national force should be allowed to encourage terrorism from across the border by taking advantage of the advances in Afghanistan.

Reject ‘baseless’ allegations of infiltration via LoC, says Pakistan

A senior security official in India recently said that the Army has been noticing the presence of around 140 terrorists at the launch pads across the LoC waiting to infiltrate into J&K.

India extends suspension of international commercial passenger flights till 30 September

The restriction doesn’t apply to international all-cargo operations and flights specifically approved by DGCA. International scheduled flights on selected routes are also exempted.

HC says clearing process of Delhi govt’s lawyers’ bills needs

The Delhi High Court has said that laying out a timeline for payment of bills is extremely crucial for the continued and efficient services of lawyers representing the Delhi govt considering that those counsels are rendering regular assistance to the Court across the city of Delhi.

Contribution of Nehru Ji cannot be underestimated while celebrating of 75^th  Year of Independence: Director ICHR

Indian Council of Historical Research on Mon refused the controversy over excluding the first PM Jawahar Lal Nehru image from a poster celebrating the 75^th Year of Freedom.

NEIGHBORHOOD

Five rockets fired towards Kabul airport- ANI

At least 5 rockets were fired toward the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, a US official told ABC news. The US military engaged the C-RAM missile defense, but, according to ABC News, it is still unclear whether all of the rockets were successfully intercepted. There have been no initial reports on casualties.

UNSC to convene an emergency meeting on Afghanistan today

Envoys of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting Mon to discuss the rapidly evolving situation in Afghanistan following the US drawdown and Taliban takeover of the war-ravished country, according to Radio Pakistan.

Hibatullah Akhundzada: Taliban’s reclusive leader set to play a key role in Afghanistan

As the Taliban tightens its grip over Afghanistan, the group’s leaders are now coming to the forefront to build their regime after living years in exile. He has guided the Taliban as its chief since 2016 when he was appointed to oversee the militant group.

ETIM may shift to ISKP with Taliban-China alliance over Xinjiang-HT

UN reports indicate that around 500 fighters of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement form the bulk of Taliban force along with Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazara, and Chechen fighters not Pashtuns in Badakhshan province adjoining Chinese Xinjiang via Wakhan.

4 Chinese vessels enter Japanese waters off Senkaku island

Chinese vessels entered Japanese territorial waters off Senkaku islands, said Japan’s coast guard on Mon, a day after Tokyo and Taipei held the first-ever security talks.

Pak opposition alliance to march to Islamabad against ‘corrupt’ Imran Khan govt: Shehbaz -Dawn

Pakistan opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif ripped into PM Imran Khan govt during a massive rally in Karachi and said that the opposition alliance will march to Islamabad with a “sea of supporters” to get rid of “fake and corrupt” govt. During the Pakistan Democratic Alliance rally on Sun, He accused Khan of failing to fulfill the promises he made to the people.

AFGHANISTAN CRISIS

Five rockets fired towards Kabul airport (ANI)

• At least 5 rockets were fired toward the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, a US official told ABC news.
• The US military engaged the C-RAM missile defense, but, according to ABC News, it is still unclear whether all of the rockets were successfully intercepted, but no report of casualties.
• As per rockets were fired from a car in Kabul’s Khair Khana area toward the airport on Monday morning and hit different parts of the city.
• Meanwhile, the death toll from an airstrike that targeted a vehicle in Kabul on Sun has gone up to 9, all members of the same family, including 6 children, (a 4-year-old, a 3-year-old, and two 2-year-olds) among those killed.
• US central command spokesman Capt. Bill Urban confirmed that a drone strike was carried out on Sun on a vehicle in Kabul, eliminating an Islamic State-Khorasan terrorist group (IS-K, or ISIS-K, banned in Russia) threat to the airport.
• In a later update, the US central command said that there was a possibility of additional casualties resulting from the subsequent explosions caused by the US airstrike.
• On Sat, US Army Maj. Gen. William Taylor said that two IS-K leaders were killed and another was injured in a US airstrike in the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan.

Taliban calls the US drone strike ‘arbitrary’: Report: Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told China’s state television CGTN on Mon that 7 people were killed in the drone attack, describing the US action on foreign soil as unlawful.

A Taliban spokesman said a US drone strike targeting a suspected suicide bomber in Kabul on Sun resulted in civilian casualties and condemned the United States for failing to inform the Taliban before ordering the strike.

Pentagon officials said the suicide car bomber had been preparing to attack the airport in Kabul, where US troops were in the final stages of a withdrawal from Afghanistan, on behalf of ISIS-K, a local affiliate of Islamic State that is an enemy of both the West and the Taliban.

ETIM may shift to ISKP with Taliban-China alliance over Xinjiang-HT

UN reports indicate that around 500 fighters of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) form the bulk of Taliban force along with Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazara, and Chechen fighters not Pashtuns in Badakhshan province adjoining Chinese Xinjiang via Wakhan corridor.

Sam Faddis, Former CIA Officer: We are at a point, with at least at the level of Biden and his cabinet, that we have to start seriously considering that what we are seeing are deliberate actions on their part to harm America. We have to entertain the possibilities that we have a guy in the White House who is playing from the other side.

The UK plans series of diplomatic efforts after exit from Afghanistan

• The UK government has said it will continue to drive a coordinated international response to Afghanistan under Taliban control after its last troops left the country over the weekend, with a series of diplomatic efforts planned from Mon.
• According to diplomatic sources in the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO), UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab will participate in a meeting with Qatar, Turkey, fellow G7 partners, and NATO on Mon.
• He will use the US chaired meeting with like-minded partners on Afghanistan to emphasize the UK’s 4 international priorities: preventing Afghanistan from becoming a haven for terrorists; responding to the humanitarian plight; safeguarding regional stability, and holding the Taliban to account on human rights.

India’s Worry: With the US completely handing over Kabul to the Sunni Pashtun Islamists on Aug 31^st, the fundamental question is whether Afghanistan will stabilize under the American army fatigue and M-4 carbine carrying Taliban or the latest Islamic emirate will still carry the burden of history and remain unstable as ever.

• UK, Soviets, and now the US have burnt their hands and presumably have no appetite for any military adventure in that country.
• Will China with its client state Pakistan, the mother of Taliban and all assorted terrorist groups, will be able to capitalize on the situation with the former exploiting the mineral resources of Afghanistan under the garb of Belt Road Initiative and Rawalpindi getting its so-called strategic depth against India?
• Despite Beijing’s tremendous financial and military clout and its hold on Pakistan’s military and civilian set-up, the answer to the above questions is ‘NO’ as Afghanistan has been and will be hopelessly split into tribal and ethnic lines and there are fractures within the ultra-conservative Pashtuns.
• Already, intelligence reports are coming about infighting in Kandahar among the Taliban leadership for the share of the political pie in Kabul.
• While the CCP unlike the US and Soviets is not expected to cross the Rubicon by becoming political or militarily active in Afghanistan, it will surely use its new friend, the Taliban, for taking action against some 500 ETIM fighters whose goal is to liberate Xinjiang Uighurs from the yoke of Beijing.
• Even though the Taliban have traditionally a close relationship with the ETIM, the Pashtuns are concentrated in the south and it is the minority Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras, Uighur, and Chechen who comprise the bulk of Taliban cadre in north Afghanistan.
• If the Taliban start harassing the Afghan minorities, it is these non-Pashtun elements who will join the core of Panjshir resistance in the future.
• Already, intelligence reports from Afghanistan and Turkey indicate that the ETIM group will shift its allegiance to the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP) as they fear the Taliban will act against them and hand them over to the MSS, the Chinese secret service.
• It is for this very reason that China wants the US to redesignate ETIM as a global terrorist group, which is rather rich for a country that sat on the UN designation of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist for nearly 3 years.
• Secondly, Beijing’s interest in the Taliban regime is to ask the Islamist leadership of the Sunni Pashtun force to put pressure on their blood brother, the Tehreek-e-Taliban, across the Durand Line to buy peace for their CPEC project in Pakistan.
• While the TTP is attacking the Chinese nationals involved in CPEC projects in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Pak Occupied Kashmir, the Balochistan insurgents are militarily taking on both the Chinese and the Pakistanis in the Gwadar deep-sea project.
• While the TTP has sworn allegiance (Bayat) to the Taliban’s never to be seen supreme leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, it has made it amply clear that it will continue to target the Rawalpindi GHQ from within Pakistan and does not need the safe terror sanctuary of Afghanistan.
• Pakistan may be triumphing about the Taliban breaking the shackles of slavery by humiliating the US forces in Afghanistan, but the future does not look so rosy for Islamabad as billions of dollars worth of aid in the name of war against terror from the west will dry up.
• US and West were giving aid and grants to Pakistan, China gives only loans and that too on a souped-up interest rate and collaterals.
• While Pakistan may get deniability of terror attacks against India by allowing all terror factories to shift to Afghanistan under the Taliban, the economic and military gap between New Delhi and Islamabad is ever-widening under the Modi regime and there is a sea change from India of the 1990s.
• To top it all, the Modi regime refuses to get blackmailed over Pakistan’s nuclear status and is ready to militarily respond to any terror attack inspired and orchestrated by Rawalpindi.
• The fact is that actually, the strategic space for Pakistan has shrunk with China demanding its share of the pie for CPEC and resurgent Taliban becoming the radicalizing force for not only all the Pashtuns on both sides of Durand Line, which is not recognized by the Taliban but also jihadists of all genre in the region. The US is gone and the new Great Game has just begun.

Pakistan NSA ‘warns’ of second 9/11 if West doesn’t recognize Taliban, then says ‘misquoted’: Pakistan National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf has asked British newspaper The Sunday Times to clarify and retract his interview with journalist Christina Lamb, in which he allegedly warned that the West risks a second 9/11 situation if it doesn’t “immediately recognize” the Taliban. Lamb has denied Yusuf’s allegation of “mischaracterization”, saying the interview was recorded.

• A statement from Yusuf’s office Sun said the Aug 28^th interview, titled “Work with the Taliban or Repeat the Horror of the 1990s, West Told”, is a “gross mischaracterization” of the conversation that took place between Yusuf and An award-winning journalist, Christina Lamb, who later on said “Interviews is recorded – nothing is misquoted”
• A formal demand for the story to be retracted and clarified has been sent to the newspaper by the Pakistan High Commission in the UK, the statement added.

Taliban assured to not let TTP use Afghanistan’s soil against Pakistan: Rashid-Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed says that the Taliban have assured to not let TTP use Afghanistan’s soil against Pakistan.

• Talking to media in Islamabad on Monday, he said Pakistan Army is present along the border with Afghanistan to defend every inch of the motherland. He said around 2690 km of the Pak-Afghan frontier have been fenced.
• He added Pakistan is a responsible country and is fully capable of taking care of its national security and coming up with international expectations. He said Pakistan has made history in facilitating the peace process in Afghanistan.
• Replying to a question, the Minister made it clear that all Pakistanis have been evacuated from Afghanistan and only 30 to 40 people are there, who themselves do not want their repatriation.
• He said Pakistan is going to become a center of international politics, but the opposition is not realizing its responsibility.

‘Challenge for us’, said defense minister Rajnath Singh on Taliban takeover in Afghanistan

Union defense minister Rajnath Singh on Sun said that the situation in Afghanistan has emerged as a challenge for India, with the Taliban set to take charge after the complete drawdown of the US troops. Singh also said that the changes have led to the rethinking of strategy.

“The changing equation in Afghanistan is a challenge for us. These situations have forced our country to rethink its strategy. We are changing our strategy and the formation of QUAD underlines this strategy,” news agency ANI quoted him as saying while delivering his keynote address at the Defence Services Staff College in Wellington, Tamil Nadu.

• Further, Singh said that the ministry is seriously considering the formation of Integrated Battle Groups. “These ‘Integrated Battle Groups’ will be new groups to fight against the enemies. Under this, extremely lethal, brigade-sized agile and self-reliant fighter formations will be made,” he said.
• Union minister of external affairs S Jaishankar on Sat spoke with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken regarding the situation in Afghanistan.
• Also, Prime Minister Narendra Modi too had said that the country would stand by its citizens during times of crisis. So far, more than 550 people have been airlifted by India out of Kabul, according to the last update.

Indian military to brain-storm over Taliban in Afghanistan

• With the US leaving behind billions of dollars worth of military hardware in Afghanistan, India is worried about the proliferation of conventional weapons and night vision devices among Taliban and Haqqani Network affiliated jihadists in Pakistan.
• The Indian military brass led by Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat is expected to brainstorm on the impact of a Taliban regime in Afghanistan and its security ramifications on India and the sub-continent this week.
• Given the ideological and operational affiliation of the Taliban, an UN-designated global terrorist group, with Pakistan-based terror groups like Tehreek-e-Taliban, Jaish-e-Mohammed, and Haqqani Network, the military brass including all the 3 service chiefs will study and assess the security imperatives due to Taliban in Kabul.
• The topic is a matter of concern as for the first time there will be no US forces on the ground in Afghanistan.

The Indian military has a few areas of security concerns: Firstly, with the US leaving behinds billions of dollars worth of hardware in Afghanistan, including military-grade night vision devices, which are normally subjected to US export control regimes, tactical drones, and loitering ammunition, etc, there will be a serious proliferation of conventional weapons among the jihadists in the Indian sub-continent with sophisticated M-4 and M-16 rifles replacing the ubiquitous AK-47.

• This military hardware is expected to find its way to Punjabi Islamists groups like Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Tayebba (LeT) targeting India in Kashmir.
• The security situation will become dire when the Taliban cadre can fly the abandoned squadrons of Blackhawk helicopters and operate the all-terrain military vehicles.
• Secondly, worry is that the umbilical linkages between the Taliban and Pakistan-based terrorist groups will also give deniability to Islamabad in case of any terror strike in India.
• As in Taliban 1.0, the terror groups are expected to shift training camps to Afghanistan under the protection of the Taliban 2.0 and the Haqqani Network, which has known links with the Pakistani deep state.
• The jihadists from the west will be calibrated by China through Pakistan and by Islamabad to pressure India on the western front while the eastern and northern front is far from settled due to belligerent PLA.

Want to continue our political, trade ties with India: Taliban leader Stanekzai:

Since the Taliban assumed power in Kabul after the collapse of the Ashraf Ghani Govt on Aug 15, the group’s spokesmen Suhail Shaheen and Zabiullah Mujahid have spoken to the Pakistani media about the group’s views on relations with India. However, Stanekzai is the first senior leader to make a statement on relations with other countries. The Indian Express reported Sun that the United Nations Security Council, with India as its president for Aug, had dropped a reference to the Taliban from a paragraph in its statement asking Afghan groups to not support terrorists “operating on the territory of any other country”.

Rs 14,000 crore ‘Make in India’ boost for Indian Army through Akash (ANI)

• In a major boost to ‘Make in India’ in the defence sector, the Indian Army has sent proposals worth around Rs 14,000 crore to acquire two regiments of the Akash-S air defence missile system and 25 ALH.
• The proposal is with the Defence Ministry and a decision on the approval is expected soon at a high-level meeting to be chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, govt sources told ANI.
• The Akash-S missiles are a new variant of the Akash missile system with a new indigenous seeker which helps in improving the accuracy in taking down enemy aircraft and cruise missiles at distances up to 25-30 kms, they said.
• The missiles are capable of performing in extreme cold weather conditions in Ladakh and would meet all the requirements of the Indian Army in mountainous and other regions along the boundaries with China and Pak.
• The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)-developed missile system is already in service with the forces and more upgraded versions are planned to be inducted into the services in coming days.
• The DRDO has also recently tested the Akash-New Generation variant of the Akash missile systems which allows the troops to use it for longer range intersection of enemy targets and capability to operate at very high altitude locations along the Northern Borders.
• The force is also looking at acquiring 25 ALH Dhruv Mark 3 helicopters for its aviation squadrons.
• The Indian Army has been very supportive of the indigenous defence manufacturing capability and has supported the positive list of indigenisation by placing important weapons systems such as artillery guns in the import ban list.

The Army is the largest operator of the ALH Dhruv helicopters in the country and has also helped in bringing in improvements in the choppers produced by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

Reject ‘baseless’ allegations of infiltration via LoC, says Pakistan

A senior security official in India recently said that the Army has been noticing the continued presence of around 140 terrorists at the launch pads across the LoC, likely waiting to infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir, but the robust counter-infiltration grid has so far desisted them from making any such attempts.

• “We categorically reject the baseless allegations that Pakistan wanted to infiltrate so-called terrorists’ via the Line of Control (LoC),” Foreign Office spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said in a statement.
• He said that in Feb this year Pakistan had reiterated adherence to the 2003 ceasefire understanding with India in the interest of regional peace and security and alleged that India was using “baseless and misleading allegations of so-called infiltration attempts to find excuses to scuttle the ceasefire understanding.
• India and Pakistan agreed February agreed to the strict observance of all agreements, understandings, and ceasefire along the LoC and all other sectors with effect from Feb 24-25 midnight 2021.
• Contending that the ceasefire agreement was more important for Pakistan as it is desperately trying to come out of the “grey list” of the Financial Action Task Force.
• ThePrint citing an anonymous Indian official reported that Pakistan is using the ceasefire window to strengthen its infrastructure along the LoC that was damaged in cross-border shelling last year in response to their troops’ firing at civilian areas on the Indian side of the LoC.

Army foils infiltration bid along LoC in J&K’s Poonch, 1 terrorist killed

• Army troops detected the infiltration bid by use of the integrated surveillance grid in the Poonch sector early Mon, defense spokesman Lt Col Devender Anand said. Added that an operation is still in progress in the area.
• On being challenged by Army troops, a fierce firefight ensued and one terrorist was killed. His body along with an AK-47 rifle has been recovered.

“This action by alert Army troops displays the resolve of the Indian Army to thwart any misadventure along the LoC, Lt Col Anand said.

Bombers will add to China’s growing nuclear triad

The People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force, which controls China’s nuclear arsenal, has attracted much attention recently with the discovery of no fewer than 250 intercontinental ballistic-missile silos in three separate installations deep inside China. However, one other arm of China’s nuclear triad is yet to appear – the H-20 strategic bomber.

• Little is known about the H-20, although speculation abounds.
• Since WWII, bombers have been widely used in conflicts such as Afghanistan, Chechnya, the Gulf War, Iraq, Korea, Libya, Syria, Vietnam, and Yugoslavia.
• The fielding of bombers stagnated in the latter stages of the Cold War, primarily because they were expensive to develop and also because their role in delivering nuclear weapons could be taken over by ICBMs.
• It is relevant that Fu mentioned “reliable engines,” for sophisticated military jet engines have proved notoriously difficult for China to master. At this stage, it is unclear what engines will power the H-20.
• Although it is making progress with engines like the WS10, now installed on the indigenous J-10 single-engine fighter, China still imports quantities of engines from Russia.
• The Pentagon’s 2020 report on China’s military said “the PLAAF is seeking to extend its power projection capability with the development of a new stealth strategic bomber”.

The Pentagon added that it should have the following features: “a stealthy design, employing many fifth-generation technologies; a likely range of at least 8,500km; a payload of at least 10 metric tons; and a capability to employ both conventional and nuclear weaponry.”

4 Chinese vessels enter Japanese waters off Senkaku island

• Four Chinese vessels entered Japanese territorial waters off Senkaku islands, said Japan’s coast guard on Mon, a day after Tokyo and Taipei held the first-ever security talks.
• According to the Japan coast guard, the vessels were reportedly approaching a Japanese fishing boat.
• The Coast Guard said the four Chinese ships entered Japan’s waters off Uotsuri Island and Minamikojima Island, two of the Senkaku Islands, one after another starting at around 2:40 am, Japanese broadcaster NHK reported.
• It said that as of 3:30 am, 3 of the vessels were sailing 12 to 17 km south of Uotsuri Island, while other was traveling about 15 km south-southwest of Minamikojima Island. Japan controls the Senkaku Islands, however, China and Taiwan continue to claim them.
• Tokyo maintains the islands are an inherent part of its territory as per history and international law.
• On Fri, the ruling parties of Taiwan and Japan held their first diplomatic and defense policy discussion, with representatives of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) pledging to support Taiwan’s bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, Global Times reported.
• China, which considers Taiwan as its integral part, lodged a strong opposition to the security talks and urged Tokyo to stop interfering in China’s internal affairs.
• China claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea and has overlapping territorial claims with Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Taiwan.
• Beijing has been increasing its maritime activities in both the SCS and the ECS over the past few months, partly in response to Beijing’s concerns over the increasing US military presence in the region because of escalating Sino-US tensions.
• Beijing’s rising assertiveness against counter claimants in the East and South Sea has resulted in unprecedented agreement across the Indo-Pacific.