Comments - Karachi-Born US Senator Van Hollen Stands Up For Pakistan During Afghanistan Hearing - PakAlumni Worldwide: The Global Social Network 2024-03-28T19:11:40Zhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profiles/comment/feed?attachedTo=1119293%3ABlogPost%3A402428&xn_auth=noPakistan concludes 'drive' to…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2022-01-04:1119293:Comment:4057352022-01-04T15:59:21.106ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p>Pakistan concludes 'drive' to issue smartcards to registered #Afghan #refugees. Smartcards will give them faster and safer access to #health and #education facilities and to #banking services in #Pakistan. <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing/2022/1/61d419634/pakistan-concludes-drive-issue-smartcards-registered-afghan-refugees.html" target="_blank">https://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing/2022/1/61d419634/pakistan-concludes-drive-issue-smartcards-registered-afghan-refugees.html</a> via…</p>
<p>Pakistan concludes 'drive' to issue smartcards to registered #Afghan #refugees. Smartcards will give them faster and safer access to #health and #education facilities and to #banking services in #Pakistan. <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing/2022/1/61d419634/pakistan-concludes-drive-issue-smartcards-registered-afghan-refugees.html" target="_blank">https://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing/2022/1/61d419634/pakistan-concludes-drive-issue-smartcards-registered-afghan-refugees.html</a> via @refugees<br/><br/><br/>UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, commends the Government of Pakistan for its country-wide campaign to verify and update the data of some 1.4 million registered Afghan refugees and to issue them with smart identity cards.<br/><br/>Following a short pilot, the campaign, supported by UNHCR, began on 15 April 2021 and ended on 31 December 2021. It was the first large-scale verification of refugees in Pakistan in the last 10 years.<br/><br/>According to early provisional results, the data of 1.25 million Afghan refugees was updated and expanded as a result of the campaign, officially known as the documentation renewal and information verification exercise (DRIVE). Among them were 200,000 children under the age of five who were registered by their refugee parents.<br/><br/>More than 700,000 new smart identity cards have also been issued to date. The remaining cards will be printed and distributed in early 2022.<br/><br/>These cards, which will be valid until 30 June 2023, contain biometric data and are technologically compatible with systems used in Pakistan to authenticate the identities of nationals.<br/><br/>The new smart identity cards are an essential protection tool for Afghan refugees and give them faster and safer access to health and education facilities and to banking services.<br/><br/>DRIVE also provided an opportunity for Afghan refugees to flag any specific protection needs or vulnerabilities. More detailed information about refugees’ socioeconomic data will allow for better tailored assistance in Pakistan and for support in case refugees decide to return home, when conditions allow.<br/><br/>Over 40 verification sites were operational across Pakistan during DRIVE, while mobile registration vans facilitated verifications for Afghan refugees living in remote areas. A mass information campaign was also carried out to explain to Afghan refugees about the purpose of the campaign and how to participate.<br/><br/>Strict measures were in place at all sites to mitigate COVID-19 risks through enhanced hygiene, physical distancing, and the scheduling of set numbers of appointments each day during the exercise.<br/><br/>DRIVE is part of a wider effort to assist and protect Afghan refugees, including through the support platform for the Solutions Strategy for Afghan Refugees (SSAR). The support platform was launched in 2019 to help refugee host countries while also sought to invest in former refugee return areas in Afghanistan.</p>
<p class="comment-timestamp"></p> How #US, #UK & #Pakistan…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2022-01-03:1119293:Comment:4056912022-01-03T02:07:03.462ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p>How #US, #UK & #Pakistan Joined Hands to Stop Another 9/11. They crushed what would come to be known as the transatlantic aircraft plot: a #terrorist conspiracy to kill thousands of passengers by detonating liquid explosives hidden in plastic bottles. <a href="https://politi.co/3sOE8N7" target="_blank">https://politi.co/3sOE8N7</a><br></br><br></br><br></br>While the Anglo-American intelligence alliance remains rock-solid, the Pakistani-American one has badly foundered. But decades from now,…</p>
<p>How #US, #UK & #Pakistan Joined Hands to Stop Another 9/11. They crushed what would come to be known as the transatlantic aircraft plot: a #terrorist conspiracy to kill thousands of passengers by detonating liquid explosives hidden in plastic bottles. <a href="https://politi.co/3sOE8N7" target="_blank">https://politi.co/3sOE8N7</a><br/><br/><br/>While the Anglo-American intelligence alliance remains rock-solid, the Pakistani-American one has badly foundered. But decades from now, historians will look back on this era’s checkered legacy and highlight OVERT as a model. The menace of transnational terrorism will likely stay with us, and so we should hope that both friendly and adversarial nations will continue to work together to keep their populations safe without losing sight of their values.<br/><br/>-----<br/><br/>By AKI PERITZ<br/><br/>01/02/2022 07:00 AM EST<br/><br/>Aki Peritz is a former CIA analyst and the author of Disruption: Inside the Largest Counterterrorism Investigation in History, from which this article is adapted.<br/><br/>------------<br/><br/>Rauf was snoozing as the bus approached the checkpoint. When it suddenly came to a halt by the railway tracks, Rauf opened his eyes and glanced out the window. It wasn’t the usual bored policeman or train operator idling along the side of the road, but a unit of elite police officers armed with gleaming Kalashnikov rifles. In the group were several plainclothes men; one motioned to the driver to open the front door. The driver obeyed and the officers told him to pull over and cut the motor. The bus driver quickly complied.<br/><br/>As the fog of sleep lifted, Rauf quickly put two and two together. According to his written notes that were later obtained by German authorities, he felt a terrible sinking feeling when he realized he had forgotten to switch off one of his cell phones. In a desperate, pointless effort, he turned off a few phones before the authorities made their way to the back of the bus. After visually identifying Rauf, they cuffed and hooded him, bundling the terrorist mastermind into the back of a waiting van. He didn’t put up a fight. It was over in a few minutes. Rashid Rauf was in custody.<br/><br/>The British, who favored letting the plot develop further, were displeased about this turn of events. The Met’s Peter Clarke was “well and truly miffed;” surveillance chief Steve Dryden was “angry.” “Livid” was how the BBC’s Margaret Gilmore described the cops’ reaction. This was an enormously complicated, calibrated operation involving hundreds, perhaps thousands, of officers. The surveillance squads had been working at full tilt; few had any semblance of a normal home life. But now the American bull had barged into their china shop.<br/><br/><br/>Still, the operation was a great joint U.S.-Pakistan success. But by the following year, the shine was off that relationship. The Pakistanis began withholding assistance. Hayden, the CIA chief, recalled in his memoirs that when the United States went to Pakistan in 2007 with a plan to take out a specific al Qaeda operative, “the response was no, maddening delay, or our target suddenly and unexpectedly relocated.” In response, the CIA chose to aggressively pursue unilateral operations within Pakistan, cutting out the ISI completely. And in December 2007, Rashid Rauf mysteriously escaped Pakistani custody and disappeared.<br/><br/>The lack of cooperation became more obvious a few years later in the 2011 bin Laden raid, in which the United States inserted forces deep into Pakistan to kill the al-Qaeda leader without the ISI realizing what had happened. Relations between the two countries have never recovered.<br/><br/></p>
<p class="comment-timestamp"></p> How #US, #UK & #Pakistan…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2022-01-03:1119293:Comment:4055912022-01-03T00:54:34.228ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p><span>How #US, #UK & #Pakistan Joined Hands to Stop Another 9/11. They crushed what would come to be known as the transatlantic aircraft plot: a #terrorist conspiracy to kill thousands of passengers by detonating liquid explosives hidden in plastic bottles. <a href="https://politi.co/3sOE8N7" target="_blank">https://politi.co/3sOE8N7</a></span><br></br><br></br><br></br><span>While the Anglo-American intelligence alliance remains rock-solid, the Pakistani-American one has badly foundered. But…</span></p>
<p><span>How #US, #UK & #Pakistan Joined Hands to Stop Another 9/11. They crushed what would come to be known as the transatlantic aircraft plot: a #terrorist conspiracy to kill thousands of passengers by detonating liquid explosives hidden in plastic bottles. <a href="https://politi.co/3sOE8N7" target="_blank">https://politi.co/3sOE8N7</a></span><br/><br/><br/><span>While the Anglo-American intelligence alliance remains rock-solid, the Pakistani-American one has badly foundered. But decades from now, historians will look back on this era’s checkered legacy and highlight OVERT as a model. The menace of transnational terrorism will likely stay with us, and so we should hope that both friendly and adversarial nations will continue to work together to keep their populations safe without losing sight of their values.</span><br/><br/><span>-----</span><br/><br/><span>By AKI PERITZ</span><br/><br/><span>01/02/2022 07:00 AM EST</span><br/><br/><span>Aki Peritz is a former CIA analyst and the author of Disruption: Inside the Largest Counterterrorism Investigation in History, from which this article is adapted.</span><br/><br/><span>August 9, 2006. It was evening in Walthamstow, East London. Two local men had arranged to meet at the Town Hall complex to discuss an urgent matter. They met in the parking lot, briefly rummaging around in the back of one of their cars, before walking off toward the Walthamstow War Memorial. There, they leaned against a wall in the dark, chatting.</span><br/><br/><span>A little way off in the darkness, the command crackled over the police comms. The surveillance team watching the men from afar was ordered to move in and arrest them immediately. Their high-priority targets had converged on a single spot, and there was little time to waste. But this was Great Britain, where the police do not carry guns. These men and women were suddenly tasked to arrest the two top suspects in al-Qaeda’s largest terror plot in the West since 9/11 — and they didn’t have a single firearm among them.</span><br/><br/><br/><span>All they had were, at best, cuffs and a stern voice. And so the team aggressively approached the men, hoping they wouldn’t have a gun or a knife. Or a bomb, possibly hidden in one of the cars, ready to detonate with a flick of the switch.</span><br/><br/><br/><span>Utterly caught off guard, two men who had spent the last several months plotting to bring down multiple passenger planes over the Atlantic Ocean gave up without a fight.</span><br/><br/><span>Thus began a massive crackdown throughout the United Kingdom. That night and into the following morning, scores of police kicked down doors across London and elsewhere, tackling suspects on the street, dragging others from their homes and safehouses. It was the culmination of Operation OVERT, a massive investigation that had been whirring relatively quietly for months as the U.S., the U.K. and Pakistan worked together to crush what would come to be known as the transatlantic aircraft plot: a terrorist conspiracy to kill thousands of passengers by detonating liquid explosives hidden in plastic bottles.</span><br/><br/><span>OVERT was a huge undertaking; over 800 surveillance officers worked on cracking that cell, with teams pulled in from Northern Ireland and the military. “If the Boy Scouts had a surveillance team,” Steve Dryden of the London Metropolitan Police dryly noted, “we’d have used them as well.” Across the Atlantic, the White House, CIA, NSA and other departments were providing as much assistance to their British counterparts as possible. Cooperation from the United States, as well as from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), had been critical to the effort that ended with the raft of arrests on that August night.</span></p> Brownstein will lobby for #Pa…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2021-11-17:1119293:Comment:4045062021-11-17T00:21:31.888ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p><span>Brownstein will lobby for #Pakistan for $100,000 a month. #Pakistani government has hired a team of lobbyists from Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, including former Sen. Mark Begich, to represent its interests in #WashingtonDC, #US. <a href="https://politi.co/3oCcaR6" target="_blank">https://politi.co/3oCcaR6</a> via @politico</span><br></br><br></br><span>Brownstein’s contract with the Pakistani Embassy is worth $100,000 per month, to be paid quarterly, and includes Mimi Burke, Sean Callahan,…</span></p>
<p><span>Brownstein will lobby for #Pakistan for $100,000 a month. #Pakistani government has hired a team of lobbyists from Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, including former Sen. Mark Begich, to represent its interests in #WashingtonDC, #US. <a href="https://politi.co/3oCcaR6" target="_blank">https://politi.co/3oCcaR6</a> via @politico</span><br/><br/><span>Brownstein’s contract with the Pakistani Embassy is worth $100,000 per month, to be paid quarterly, and includes Mimi Burke, Sean Callahan, David Cohen, Nadeam Elshami, Marc Lampkin, Doug Maguire, Al Mottur and Ari Zimmerman, in addition to Begich. It comes as Pakistan has continued to engage with the U.S., Russia and China in the wake of the pullout of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s subsequent takeover. Representatives from those countries, or the extended troika, met last week in Islamabad to discuss what they described in a joint statement as a “severe humanitarian and economic situation in Afghanistan.” The extended troika also met with Taliban leaders on the sidelines of those talks, where they called on the Taliban to allow “unhindered humanitarian access” and pushed for the restoration of rights for women and girls.</span><br/><br/><span>— In a statement, Brownstein spokesperson Lara Day said that the firm will work to “forge stronger Pakistan-U.S. bilateral relations” following the withdrawal, which she contended is “essential to regional peace and stability, strong counterterrorism efforts, and promotion of economic growth and trade.” Day noted that Pakistan is also “at the crossroads of developments in and between Iran and China, making it strategically important to both the U.S. and European partners.”</span></p> Pakistan Allows #India to Sen…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2021-11-16:1119293:Comment:4045012021-11-16T01:11:50.825ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p><span>Pakistan Allows #India to Send #Wheat Overland Through its Territory as #Hunger Grips #Afghanistan. It'll be the first such consignment from #NewDelhi. #Pakistan, #Iran & #UAE have already been providing Afghanistan with food and medical supplies.…</span></p>
<p><span>Pakistan Allows #India to Send #Wheat Overland Through its Territory as #Hunger Grips #Afghanistan. It'll be the first such consignment from #NewDelhi. #Pakistan, #Iran & #UAE have already been providing Afghanistan with food and medical supplies. <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-15/pakistan-allows-india-to-send-wheat-as-hunger-grips-afghanistan" target="_blank">https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-15/pakistan-allows-india-to-send-wheat-as-hunger-grips-afghanistan</a></span><br/><br/><span>Pakistan will allow India to send 50,000 tons of wheat through its territory to neighboring Afghanistan, which is reeling under a severe hunger crisis as its economy has stalled since the Taliban took over in August, according to an Afghan government official.</span><br/><br/><span>Islamabad agreed to allow over land wheat shipments nearly a month after Kabul sought permission, Sulaiman Shah Zaheer, a spokesman of the Afghanistan Ministry of Commerce and Industries, said in a phone interview.</span><br/><br/><span>“The issue has now been resolved, and India can now send the wheat to Afghanistan via the Wagah border in Pakistan,” he said</span><br/><br/><span>The aid will be the first such consignment from New Delhi, which is yet to recognize the country’s new Taliban regime. Pakistan, Iran and U.A.E. are among the other nations that have provided Afghanistan with food and medical supplies. More than half of the country’s nearly 40 million people are likely to face acute food shortage and nine million are already on brink of starvation, according to a recent World Food Program report.</span><br/><br/><span>Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan had said that his country would “favorably consider the request by Afghan brothers for transportation of wheat offered by India through Pakistan on exceptional basis,” in a statement after a Nov. 12 meeting with Afghanistan’s Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi.</span><br/><br/><span>There was no immediate comment from Pakistan officials Monday.</span><br/><br/><span>Last month Pakistan had denied India’s request to send the wheat because of the fractious relationship between the two South Asian nations.</span></p> Watch Pakistan's Raja Faisal…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2021-11-12:1119293:Comment:4040842021-11-12T03:08:54.090ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p>Watch Pakistan's Raja Faisal respond to India's GD Bakshi on Ajit Doval's NSA Meeting on Afghanistan: US, China and Russia are all attending the Islamabad NSA Meet on Afghanistan. You (India) couldn't even get your ally US to attend.<br/><br/><a href="https://youtu.be/FDEfDx3d3kM" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/FDEfDx3d3kM</a></p>
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<p>Watch Pakistan's Raja Faisal respond to India's GD Bakshi on Ajit Doval's NSA Meeting on Afghanistan: US, China and Russia are all attending the Islamabad NSA Meet on Afghanistan. You (India) couldn't even get your ally US to attend.<br/><br/><a href="https://youtu.be/FDEfDx3d3kM" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/FDEfDx3d3kM</a></p>
<p class="comment-timestamp"></p> #India Has Lost Its Leverage…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2021-11-12:1119293:Comment:4043692021-11-12T03:08:18.948ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p>#India Has Lost Its Leverage in #Afghanistan . #Pakistan & #China have written India out of the script. Prospects for #US-India cooperation in Afghanistan are limited, although New Delhi can count on Washington taking its interests into account. #Taliban…<br></br><br></br></p>
<p>#India Has Lost Its Leverage in #Afghanistan . #Pakistan & #China have written India out of the script. Prospects for #US-India cooperation in Afghanistan are limited, although New Delhi can count on Washington taking its interests into account. #Taliban<br/><br/><a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/11/11/india-afghanistan-leverage-taliban-takeover-regional-diplomacy/" target="_blank">https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/11/11/india-afghanistan-leverage-taliban-takeover-regional-diplomacy/</a><br/><br/>This week’s (Afghanistan) conference (hosted by India) included national security advisors from Russia, Iran, and five Central Asian states. India sought to emphasize regional concerns about the risks of an unstable Afghanistan, including terrorism and drug trafficking. Indian officials also saw the conference as an opportunity to put New Delhi back into the conversation. As one source told the Indian Express, “when you are not at the table, you are on the menu.”<br/><br/>The conference did allow New Delhi to convey its core concerns to friendly regional actors that still enjoy influence in Kabul, a strategy it’s likely to embrace in the coming months. India only recently established formal channels of communication with the Taliban, and it has had only one known meeting with Taliban officials since the takeover: an exchange in Doha, Qatar.<br/><br/>But the conference will do little to strengthen India’s influence in Afghanistan. Its limited relations with the Taliban, along with the likelihood of deepening Pakistani and Chinese footprints in the country, suggest India will be written out of the script. Both Pakistan and China have already hosted senior Taliban officials. Beijing seeks to invest in infrastructure in Afghanistan, and Islamabad has already permitted Taliban officials to take up diplomatic posts.<br/><br/>China and Pakistan’s decision not to attend Wednesday’s conference further demonstrates that neither country plans to help India pursue its interests in Afghanistan. Islamabad, which alleges that New Delhi sponsors anti-Pakistan terrorists in Afghanistan, won’t cede an inch of ground. It has already failed to respond to a recent request to allow Indian trucks to cross through Pakistani territory to deliver food shipments to Afghanistan.<br/><br/>India’s waning influence in Afghanistan not only represents a strategic loss but also puts its many investments in the country at risk. Since 2001, New Delhi’s $3 billion in development assistance has produced more than 400 projects in Afghanistan, including a dam, a highway, a pediatric hospital, and its parliament building. Although India finds itself suddenly locked out, it won’t sit on its hands. New Delhi seeks assurances from the Taliban that its assets and remaining nationals in the country remain safe.<br/><br/>However, India lacks sufficient leverage to reverse its strategic setbacks in Afghanistan under the new regime. The Indian government will need to resign itself to conveying its concerns through countries with more influence, including the United States—which met with China, Pakistan, and Russia in Islamabad on Thursday. Prospects for U.S.-India cooperation in Afghanistan are limited, although New Delhi can count on Washington taking its interests into account.<br/><br/>But India can start with the countries present at Wednesday’s conference. Russia has engaged closely with Taliban leaders in recent months; Iran has provided military supportand safe havens to Taliban leaders. Central Asian states also enjoy leverage by providing electricity to Afghanistan and presenting cross-border trade opportunities. Their territory also could offer staging grounds for U.S. counterterrorism activities.<br/><br/>In Afghanistan, India must carry out a delicate diplomatic dance: compensating for its loss of influence by tightening ties with other regional actors while steering clear of its Chinese and Pakistani rivals.<br/><br/></p>
<p class="comment-timestamp"></p> #TroikaPlus group seeks to ea…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2021-11-12:1119293:Comment:4041932021-11-12T03:07:38.533ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p>#TroikaPlus group seeks to ease access to banking services in #Afghanistan. The group, made up of #Pakistan, #China, #Russia & the #US, met in #Islamabad against a backdrop of growing alarm over the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan. #hunger #poverty…</p>
<p>#TroikaPlus group seeks to ease access to banking services in #Afghanistan. The group, made up of #Pakistan, #China, #Russia & the #US, met in #Islamabad against a backdrop of growing alarm over the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan. #hunger #poverty <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/china/troika-plus-group-holds-conference-afghanistan-pakistani-capital-2021-11-11/" target="_blank">https://www.reuters.com/world/china/troika-plus-group-holds-conference-afghanistan-pakistani-capital-2021-11-11/</a><br/><br/>The so-called Troika Plus group pledged on Thursday to try to ease severe pressure on Afghanistan's banking system as it warned of possible economic collapse and a humanitarian disaster that could fuel a new refugee crisis.<br/><br/>The group, made up of Pakistan, China, Russia and the United States, met in Islamabad against a backdrop of growing alarm over the situation in Afghanistan, where more than half the population is facing severe hunger over the coming winter.<br/><br/>"I urge the international community to fulfil its collective responsibility to avert a grave humanitarian crisis," Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan wrote on Twitter, adding that Pakistan would provide aid including food, emergency medical supplies and winter shelters.<br/><br/>The Taliban victory in August saw the billions of dollars in foreign aid that had kept the economy afloat abruptly switched off, with more than $9 billion in central bank reserves frozen outside the country.<br/><br/>"Nobody wishes to see a relapse into civil war, no one wants an economic collapse that will spur instability," Pakistan's foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said.<br/><br/>"Everyone wants terrorist elements operating inside Afghanistan to be tackled effectively and we all want to prevent a new refugee crisis," he told the envoys, who also met the Taliban acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi.<br/><br/>Restrictions on the banking system put in place by international governments since the Taliban took over have deepened the pain for Afghans, prompting growing calls for the freeze on the reserves to be lifted.<br/><br/>The troika said it acknowledged concerns about the "serious liquidity challenges and committed to continue focusing on measures to ease access to legitimate banking services."<br/><br/>Pakistan has called on governments, including the United States, to allow development assistance to flow into Afghanistan to prevent collapse.<br/><br/>Pakistan has also discussed the idea of Afghanistan joining CPEC, its multi-billion dollar infrastructure project with China, which comes under the banner of Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).<br/><br/>Thursday's conference, which reiterated calls on the Taliban to ensure women's rights are respected and that Afghanistan does not become a base for militant groups to carry out attacks outside the country, is the latest in a series of diplomatic meetings in the region.<br/><br/>Muttaqi arrived in Islamabad on Wednesday to discuss trade and other ties, while neighbouring India held a conference for regional countries on Wednesday, though arch-rival Pakistan did not attend that meeting.</p>
<p class="comment-timestamp"></p> After #Pakistan, #China too d…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2021-11-09:1119293:Comment:4043612021-11-09T01:27:51.545ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p>After #Pakistan, #China too decides to skip NSA-level meet on #Afghanistan hosted by #India NSA Ajit Doval. Pakistan NSA @YusufMoeed has called India a “spoiler”, not a “peacemaker” in Afghanistan. #AjitDoval #Modi…</p>
<p>After #Pakistan, #China too decides to skip NSA-level meet on #Afghanistan hosted by #India NSA Ajit Doval. Pakistan NSA @YusufMoeed has called India a “spoiler”, not a “peacemaker” in Afghanistan. #AjitDoval #Modi <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/pakistan-china-to-skip-nsa-level-meet-afghanistan-hosted-india-1874514-2021-11-09?utm_source=twshare&utm_medium=socialicons&utm_campaign=shareurltracking" target="_blank">https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/pakistan-china-to-skip-nsa-level-meet-afghanistan-hosted-india-1874514-2021-11-09?utm_source=twshare&utm_medium=socialicons&utm_campaign=shareurltracking</a> via @indiatoday<br/><br/>On China, India was keen that Beijing participate but see no reason to doubt the reason for their absence. A source reminded that China did participate in the BRICS NSA meeting, so no reason for them to skip this one.<br/><br/>India will focus on humanitarian aid to Afghanistan which constitutes a major part of bringing security and stability to the country. India’s commitment is to the people of Afghanistan and there is a need for quick access to Afghanistan and its people which Pakistan has denied, said sources. Adding, if Pakistan is concerned they should allow Indian aid to flow through.<br/><br/>The other area of concern for India is drug trafficking. Everyone in the region has raised their levels of alert and capacity on the issue.<br/><br/>On visas for Afghan nationals who have been urging India to help them leave the country, sources say it is a national decision and will be taken keeping security and humanitarian needs of applicants. Matter of constant review between agencies said sources.<br/><br/>India is maintaining a small team of local staff in Kabul working on consular issues.<br/><br/>Before returning to their countries, various delegations wish to visit various places in India which is being organised. Sources say the Kazakh delegation would visit the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Uzbek delegations want to visit the Taj Mahal in Agra, while the delegation from Tajikistan want to go sightseeing in Delhi.</p>
<p class="comment-timestamp"></p> A senior Pentagon official ha…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2021-10-30:1119293:Comment:4040092021-10-30T23:28:07.095ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p><span>A senior Pentagon official has informed Congress that Pakistan continues to give the United States access to its airspace and the two sides are also talking about keeping that access open.</span><br></br><br></br><span><a href="https://www.dawn.com/news/1654655" target="_blank">https://www.dawn.com/news/1654655</a></span><br></br><br></br><span>US Undersecretary of Defence for Policy Colin Kahl shared this information with the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday during an open/closed hearing on…</span></p>
<p><span>A senior Pentagon official has informed Congress that Pakistan continues to give the United States access to its airspace and the two sides are also talking about keeping that access open.</span><br/><br/><span><a href="https://www.dawn.com/news/1654655" target="_blank">https://www.dawn.com/news/1654655</a></span><br/><br/><span>US Undersecretary of Defence for Policy Colin Kahl shared this information with the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday during an open/closed hearing on “Security in Afghanistan and in the regions of South and Central Asia”.</span><br/><br/><span>He was replying to a question from the committee’s chairman Senator Jack Reed, who asked him to update the panel on “our arrangement with Pakistan regarding their cooperation with us in counterterrorism”. The senator referred to recent press reports claiming that Pakistan was working with the Taliban to attack the militant Islamic State group.</span><br/><br/><span>“Pakistan is a challenging actor, but they don’t want Afghanistan to be a safe haven for terrorist attacks, external attacks, not just against Pakistan but against others” as well, Dr Kahl told the open session. “They continue to give us access to Pakistani airspace and we are in conversation about keeping that access open.”</span></p>