Washington, June 20 (ANI): Amidst reports of both Pakistan and Afghanistan being engaged in ‘peace’ talks with the Taliban, including with the dreaded Haqqani network, the US leadership must also assert a clear role and vision in the reconciliation process, noted South Asian affairs analyst Lisa Curtis has said.

Curtis, a senior research fellow for South Asia in the Asian Studies Center at The Heritage Foundation, said any genuine thaw in relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan would be welcome, however, the idea that the U.S. would take a back seat in any effort to negotiate an end to the war in Afghanistan defies logic.  Read more... (303 words, 1 image, estimated 1:13 mins reading time)

U.S. missiles killed four alleged Taliban insurgents on Monday in northwest Pakistan, while three other militant suspects were slain in a shootout with local security forces elsewhere in the region, officials said.

Three missiles struck a house in the Khaisur area of the North Waziristan tribal region near the border with Afghanistan, said two intelligence officials on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists. The identities of the dead were not known.  Read more... (260 words, 1 image, estimated 1:02 mins reading time)

If the despondent Bharati (aka Indian) think tank community has the deer-in-the-headlights-look, it is because they think the world has changed around them–it has.

The Bharatis were lead down the primrose path by Condaleeza and her sweet talk about making Bharat a superpower with a seat at the Security Council. When that didn’t happen, Bharat blames Obama. No one can deliver Superpower status to anyone, and only countries that have gone towards it have built regional relationships and friendships with all their neighbors.  Read more... (1668 words, 1 image, estimated 6:40 mins reading time)

India faces Pakistan in sometimes-bloody shadow war in Afghanistan.

cross Afghanistan, behind the obvious battles fought for this country’s soul, a shadow war is being quietly waged. It’s being fought with spies and proxies, with hundreds of millions of dollars in aid money and ominous diplomatic threats.

The fight pits nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan against one another in a battle for influence that will almost certainly gain traction as the clock ticks down toward America’s military withdrawal, which President Barack Obama has announced will begin next year.  Read more... (1588 words, 1 image, estimated 6:21 mins reading time)

The CIA has been accused of ordering the kidnapping of a former Pakistani intelligence officer, who turned human rights campaigner to defend al-Qaeda suspects.

The wife of Khalid Khawaja claims that her husband, who was once a confidante of Osama bin Laden, was taken at the request of the American intelligence service as he travelled through Pakistan‘s lawless tribal belt.

On Monday a group calling itself the Asian Tigers released videos of Mr Khawaja, and the colleague he was captured with, saying that they were in “Taliban custody” and demanding the release of arrested militant leaders. The kidnapping has baffled analysts who believe the two men were instrumental in fostering close ties between Pakistan’s intelligence agencies and radical Islamist groups.  Read more... (411 words, 1 image, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

Pakistan‘s main intelligence agency has eased restrictions for US investigators to interrogate a top Afghan Taliban commander, officials have told the BBC.

Security sources say the Americans began getting “limited access” to Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar last month.

He was caught in late January during a raid on a madrassa near Karachi.

Mullah Baradar’s capture came amid a major Nato-led offensive against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan and was hailed as a significant breakthrough.

US media reports suggest the Americans are satisfied with the information they are getting from the detained Taliban leader.  Read more... (523 words, 1 image, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)

(CNN) — The Pakistani military Tuesday disputed reports that 80 civilians were killed in weekend airstrikes, calling the reports “absolutely wrong.”

A military official told CNN there was intelligence on the ground and visual confirmation that militants were at the spot in the Tirah Valley, in northwest Pakistan, before the strikes took place.

“There was no doubt that there were militants there,” said the official, who asked not to be identified because he is not the official spokesman for the Pakistani military.  Read more... (268 words, 1 image, estimated 1:04 mins reading time)

At least seven soldiers have been killed in an ambush by militants in the Pakistani tribal region of North Waziristan, officials say.

The insurgents ambushed the troops on Thursday in the Dattakhel area. At least 16 soldiers were injured.

The area is part of the lawless tribal region bordering Afghanistan and is a Taliban and al-Qaeda stronghold.

Meanwhile suspected Taliban militants in the same region have killed four men they accused of spying for the US.

The BBC’s Haroon Rashid in Islamabad says that all of North Waziristan is extremely tense and a curfew has been imposed there.  Read more... (160 words, 1 image, estimated 38 secs reading time)

Violence raged in Pakistan‘s tribal region as seven soldiers died in an ambush and five people accused of spying for the U.S. and Pakistan were found beheaded, authorities said Friday.

The incidents occurred in North Waziristan, one of seven districts in the Pakistan tribal region along the Afghan border and a longtime militant stronghold.

The seven soldiers died when militants ambushed a military convoy Thursday night. Sixteen soldiers were injured in the attack, which took place in the Datta Khel area, a military official and a local government official told CNN.  Read more... (145 words, 1 image, estimated 35 secs reading time)

The London conference on Afghanistan was being billed as a dud – hastily conceived, under prepared and potentially a political face-saver for two unpopular leaders, Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai.

Instead the conference has united the international community for a further commitment to Afghanistan’s future – albeit for a shortened period.

Even more significant, there is broad agreement that talking to the Taliban is the only way to bring the insurgency to an end.  Read more... (720 words, 1 image, estimated 2:53 mins reading time)