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US envoy meets Indian NSA to talk about Afghanistan

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(Last Updated On: October 25, 2022)

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The United States’ Special Representative for Afghanistan, Richard Olson, met with Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, ahead of a key meeting scheduled for next week of the four-nation group seeking to bring about an end to conflict between Afghanistan and the Taliban, Indian government sources said.

An Indian government official familiar with the talks said their discussion centred on evolving a regional strategy to back the 170,000-strong Afghan army, which suffered a record 5,500 dead and 14,000 injured last year.

Next week’s meeting of the so-called quadrilateral, made up of Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States, comes among growing pessimism that Islamabad will deliver on long-standing promises to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table — the keystone of the international community’s efforts to end the conflict.

Faced with Taliban rejection of negotiations, and an offensive that has claimed swathes of territory, Afghanistan has been calling on regional states, including India, to step up supplies of military aid. India has so far supplied four Mi35 assault helicopters, as well as three light helicopters, but Afghanistan hopes for An32 medium-transports, as well as artillery and logistics equipment.

“The casualties the Afghan military has suffered are staggering”, said Lieutenant-General RK Sawhney, an analyst at the New Delhi-based Vivekananda International Foundation. “By way of comparison, it is as if a corps and a half in Jammu and Kashmir, out of the three corps India has there, had suffered these kinds of losses”.

“It is remarkable that the Afghan army has continued to fight”, General Sawhney said, “but it will need long-term assistance from neighbours like India, who will also suffer serious consequences if the country collapses”.

The United States military presence in Afghanistan is scheduled to fall from 9,800 at present to 5,500 by the start of 2017 — further eroding the training of troops, and the ability to provide them with logistical assistance.

In the months after he took power, President Ashraf Ghani had staked his political legitimacy on promises by Pakistan to push the Taliban into talks, but hopes have waned with the Islamist insurgency repeatedly rejecting calls to come to the table. However, hopes have waned that Islamabad is committed to a power-sharing deal involving the Taliban, as the insurgent group has registered its most significant territorial gains since 2001.

“Everyone agrees that a political settlement will at the end of the day be necessary to bring about an end to the Afghan conflict”, a senior United States official said. “However, there isn’t much reason for an over-abundance of optimism that this will happen”.

Last month, hopes rose after Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Foreign Policy Advisor, Sartaj Aziz, broke with decades of denial that the Taliban leadership was in the country, and said the government had “restricted their movements, restricted their access to hospitals and other facilities, and threatened them that ‘If you don’t come forward and talk, we will at least expel you’”.

The Taliban had been told, he said, that “we have hosted [them] enough for 35 years, and we can’t do it anymore because the whole world is blaming us just by [their] presence here”.

In the days after that declaration, though, a hoped-for meeting between the Taliban and Afghan officials failed to materialise, with the insurgents rejecting any direct dialogue until multiple preconditions were met.

Taliban chief Aktar Muhammad Mansoor, who operates out of the Pakistani city of Quetta, has in the meanwhile consolidated his authority, bringing on board the eldest son and a brother of Mullah Muhammad Omar, the group’s founding leader. Mullah Omar was revealed, last year, to have died over two years ago — sparking large-scale rifts within the insurgent leadership.

Mullah Abdul Manan Akhund, a brother of Mullah Omar, was named head of the Taliban’s Preaching and Guidance Commission, while Mullah Mohammad Yaqoub, his eldest son, was named military chief for operations in 15 provinces.

“Both of the new officials of Islamic Emirate were given advise [sic] by the Amir ul Mumineen [the Commander of the Faithful, the title for Mullah Mansour] who later prayed to Allah Almighty for their success in their current duties,” a Taliban statement said.

 

The Indian Express

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ISIS-K leader reportedly living in Pakistan’s Baluchistan province

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(Last Updated On: March 28, 2024)

Sanaullah Ghaffari, also known as Shahab al-Muhajar, is reportedly the ISIS-Khorasan (Daesh) branch leader and is holed up in Pakistan, Reuters reports.

The 29-year-old took over as leader in 2020 and under his leadership the group has carried out extreme attacks as a means of recruiting, Reuters reported.

Reuters noted that little was known about Ghafari before the deadly 2021 ISIS attack on Kabul Airport, which killed 170 Afghan civilians and 13 American soldiers.

But after Friday’s deadly attack in a concert hall in Moscow, which left 139 people dead, Ghaffari’s group has come under intense scrutiny.

Reuters reports that Ghaffari is said to have been involved in several attacks in Afghanistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan.

Pakistani officials said months ago that Ghaffari had been killed in Kunar province in Afghanistan in June last year, but Reuters has reported that he did not die and instead fled to Pakistan and lives in the border province of Baluchistan.

Abdul Matin Qani, the spokesman of the Ministry of Interior of Afghanistan, says that Daesh has been suppressed in Afghanistan for more than two years and has lost its operational capacity.

The last attack carried out by Daesh in Afghanistan was the attack on the Kabul Bank office in Kandahar last week which left three dead and 12 wounded.

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IPL: Sunrisers thump MI in record breaking match

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(Last Updated On: March 28, 2024)

It was raining records at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Wednesday with the hosts Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) clinching a 31-run victory over Mumbai Indians (MI) in Match 8 of the Tata Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024.

Sunrisers’ batting rewrote the record books on a batting belter after the posted 277 for three.

SRH now have the highest team score in the history of the IPL – beating Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) 263 for five from the 2013 season.

In reply, MI made a spirited effort, and at one stage, were contenders to do the near impossible. In the slog overs, the enormity of the target proved a bit too much, and SRH clinched victory, but not without numerous nervous moments.

To put into perspective the carnage we witnessed – Heinrich Klaasen’s 23-ball half-century was the slowest fifty of the SRH innings.

Travis Head, playing his first match for SRH, raced to the milestone in 18 balls. Abhishek Sharma got there even faster – in 16 balls – to record the quickest fifty by an SRH batter in IPL history.

While Sunrisers notched up the highest total in the 16-year history of the IPL, just as incredibly, Mumbai Indians almost paid them back with the same coin, their batters coming out with a nothing-to-lose attitude.

The sixes kept rolling off the Mumbai bats too, helping them keep up with the asking rate for most of the chase, eventually however, they ran out of steam and finished on 246 for 5, the highest IPL total in a losing cause.

As ESPNcricinfo reported, never were more runs scored in a men’s T20 match (523). Never were most sixes hit in a men’s T20 (38). At the end of the close to four-hour six-fest, only two bowlers returned with an economy rate of under ten an over.

Thursday, March 28 : Match 9

Thursday’s match at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur sees Rajasthan Royals go up against Delhi Capitals.

Fans in Afghanistan can tune in to Ariana Television to watch the match live from 6.30pm. Alternatively the match can be screened live on arianatelevision.com

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Magnitude 5.2 quake jolts Afghanistan

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(Last Updated On: March 28, 2024)

An earthquake measuring a magnitude of 5.2 on the Richter Scale jolted Afghanistan on Thursday afternoon, the National Center for Seismology reported.

The quake was at a depth of 70km and epicentered in the mountainous north-eastern area of Ashkāsham.

The jolt was felt across the region including in Kabul, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan

There were no immediate reports of any casualties.

In October last year, over 2,000 people were killed when four 6.3-magnitude earthquakes struck in Herat province.

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