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The Pashtun Tahafuz Movement is difficult for India to support because the movement owes its success to the absence of foreign funding or support.

New Delhi's focus in the talks with Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik is on the bilateral agenda- especially justice for the plotters of the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai. But it is in India's interest to widen the conversation to include the latest developments in Afghanistan where Islamabad has begun to make some big moves.

On November 2, the Wagah border which collects curious crowds on either side of the border gate to witness the interesting manoeuvres of border guards on either side were witness to a gory incident of a terrific explosion on the Pakistani side,

Instead of conjuring up bizarre conspiracy theories and nurturing a victim complex, Pakistanis need to see the reality.

Some years ago when Karan Thapar interviewed Pervez Musharraf, the general was self-assured and voluble. That was before 9/11 but after Kargil. Last fortnight, he was once again voluble, and when not talking about himself, he was talking about Kashmir. But his body language showed nervousness, impatience, an edginess and even tiredness. And Thapar drove a hard bargain.

Khan’s possible ouster is unlikely to bring any radical change in India-Pakistan relations. The bilateral relationship has plateaued since PTI came to power.

All is not lost for Pakistan's Imran Khan. He may not have succeeded in "sweeping the elections" but his performance was a significant improvement from his previous outings. From having secured only one seat in 2002, his party emerged with a plurality in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

In the Afghanistan peace process, Pakistan's significance lies more in its capability to play a destructive role than a constructive one. It is capable of scuttling the peace process and can stoke violence by supporting groups like the Haqqani network and engineer attacks against the government or foreign troops in Afghanistan.

The outcome of the February 18 elections was predetermined and the situation would only get worse as a consequence, said well-known media personality and commentator Saeed Naqvi at a talk organised by Observer Research Foundation on the Situation in Pakistan on the eve of elections on Saturday (Feb. 16).

Pakistan would continue to grapple with political instability, economic crisis and resurgence in radicalism even after the exit of former President Pervez Musharraf, leaving Pakistan Army in a jockeying position.

Since 1991, India has pursued a policy of engaging Pakistan, regardless of what the latter has thrown at us - bombs, terror assaults, fedayeen. Maybe the time has come to change course ? not by reaching out to the military or taking recourse to tit-for-tat covert war. But by encouraging the peaceful breakup of Pakistan.

Pakistan is likely to see a stable but fragile government, and the opposition will try its best to render it dysfunctional.

Dominance in the Baloch region could be passing on to China. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is the newest instrument.

The Pakistani Army is keen to repair its image after the battering it has taken following the discovery that Osama bin Laden was ensconced in a mansion in Abbotabad. And while US criticism has made international headlines,

It would not be fair to term Syed Salahuddin's statements on Kashmir as the official Pakistan policy. But the fact that Salahuddin has been making, rather freely, statements on Kashmir, which seem to be contrary to the stance taken by Islamabad-at least for the time being-is a clear pointer to Pakistan's strategy on Kashmir.

It is possible that, unable to control the various jihadis in their country or control events in Afghanistan, Pakistan's military rulers will first try to blame India for all its troubles and then launch a diversionary jihadi attack to provoke a reaction from the Indians and bring the whole world into play.

The combination of dangerous delusions, soaring ambitions and a fatal nuclear obsession could spark another round of strategic brinkmanship in South Asia, with disastrous consequences for regional security. Navy is supposed to be the new domain for another round of brinkmanship

What magnifies Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif's dilemma in picking up a successor to Gen Kayani is his own experience of picking Pervez Musharraf way down the seniority line to lead the army and regretting it forever. He will not like to repeat his past folly.

Kashmir is in trouble. Several incidents in quick succession that shattered peace in the State over the past few weeks are ominous. Trouble brewing in the Middle East, the regrouping of the Al Qaeda and various elements of terror groups, their re-emergence from the badlands of Afghanistan and Pakistan and the rising crescendo of bickering within Pakistan-all of this poses a serious threat to peace and stability in the region and elsewhere.

When the world attention was riveted by the US-choreographed peace moves between New Delhi and Islamabad early this month, a South African Jewish businessman, Asher Karni, 50, was being trapped in a sting operation launched by the US Commerce Department and other federal investigating agencies. On January 2,

After more than two years of lull in the political arena, Pakistan is witnessing some visible and dramatic changes which can influence the political scenario in the next few months.

A reasonably objective assessment of Pakistan's War on Terror can only begin with acknowledging two facts. First, there has been an unprecedented level of terrorist violence in Pakistan for the past three years.

After the horrific attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar in December last year by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants, Pakistan is trying to crack down on militancy in the country.

Although concrete evidence about Saudi intentions to acquire nuclear weapons' capabilities is not there the story continues to attract international commentary

That is, in short, the general Israeli reaction to the initiative recently taken by General Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan to bring into the open Pakistan's hitherto clandestine relations with Israel. Nobody denies the previous existence of clandestine contacts between the two countries, which recently culminated in an open,

In September 2025, Saudi Arabia signed a comprehensive defence pact with Pakistan not long after an Israeli missile attack on Qatar. While driven by broader geopolitical shifts, this was not an isolated gesture of goodwill. Since 2024, Saudi Arabia has concluded 34 bilateral agreements with Pakistan, amounting to over US$2.8 billion in commitments across various sectors. This renewed financial engagement marks a steady recovery from the setback i

The enthusiasm bordering on euphoria generated by the talks of Ms.Condoleezza Rice, US Secretary of State, with Indian leaders during her recent visit to New Delhi has been somewhat dissipated by the announcement of the decision of President George Bush to clear the sale of the latest version of the F-16 aircraft to Pakistan.

On June 2, 2012, The News International reported, that in the Dera Ismail Khan district of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province in Pakistan the 11-year-old Niazmina and her two-year-old sister Bakhtawar were given as compensation to the house of Juma Khan for the crime that their uncle, Muhammad Ikram, had committed.

COVID-19 has once again exposed the widening rift between radical religious organisations, their parochial leaders — and the government.

Recent political moves by the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) in Sindh reflect more desperation than confidence, while the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) is doing what every political party in Pakistan excels in - crying foul for having been deprived of effective power by a stronger adversary.

Pakistan Army chief Gen Ashfaq Kayani's Independence Day address at Pakistan Military Academy, Kakul, attracted widespread comments, mostly positive. In fact, Gen Kayani's speech eclipsed the standard presidential address on the occasion in the media.

Ever since a crestfallen Dr. A Q Khan admitted sheepishly on PTV that he had masterminded the sale of nuclear designs and materials to other countries, there has been a tirade of articles and letters to the editor berating Pakistan for nuclear proliferation. However, no real analysis has emerged about the implications for India, particularly of the likelihood of Pakistani nuclear warheads falling into Jihadi hands.

In contemporary conflicts, information warfare (IW) has shifted from a supporting role to the forefront, shaping perceptions, manipulating strategic narratives, and distorting democratic discourse. Since India’s Balakot airstrikes of February 2019—in retaliation for the Pulwama terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir that killed 46 paramilitary personnel—Pakistan has institutionalised IW as an element of its statecraft, targeting India. This

The Pahalgam terror attack of 22 April 2025 raised the spectre of cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir yet again. Initially claimed and then denied by The Resistance Front (TRF), a Lashkar-e-Taiba affiliate, the attack triggered nationwide condemnation and protests, including among the local population in the Union Territory. After the 2019 revocation of Articles 370 and 35A, the Indian government intensified efforts to integrate Kashmir p

Terror training schools, teaching hundreds of new and young recruits in suicide missions and use of sophisticated weapons like AK-47, Mi-5 and Surface to Air Missiles (SAMs), have been active in many parts of Pakistan, including Punjab, North West Frontier Province (NWFP), Waziristan and Pak-occupied Kashmir.

This brief situates Pakistan’s pursuit of a sea-based nuclear deterrent within the context of its asymmetric escalation strategy. It does so by examining the role of Pakistan’s land-based tactical nuclear weapons in such strategy, as well as by raising questions about claims that India may be shifting towards a counterforce targeting strategy and thus endangering the survivability of Pakistan’s nuclear deterrent. The brief also reviews clai

While these will not offer Pakistan a lot of leeway directly, they will give it more space to bring up issues that align with its own interests and deflect attention from India’s concerns

The revival of caste and community-based issues in Tamil Nadu (like in Paramakudi and Koodamkulam), the non-resolution of inter-State river water disputes and Sri Lanka-related concerns could added up to the problems of Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted two features of the Nepal-India economic relationship: Nepal’s ballooning trade deficit, and unrestricted cross-border movement of people of both countries. Attributing the trade deficit entirely to supply-side constraints is neither accurate nor conducive to the overall health of the relationship. This brief suggests ways towards more sustainable trade relations between India and Nepal, among them, India r

World's two major democracies are getting better at riding through the bumps

Paradiplomacy as it is conducted by sub-state governments introduces the idea of decentralisation of political power to make regional governments prominent actors in the international sphere. This paper examines the scope for subnational diplomacy in India, as the country seeks to appreciate the significance of federalism and regionalism in promoting local interests, as well as identity, in current international politics. Regional governments ope

Both India and France are guided by fiercely autonomous foreign policies that are paying their dividends in today’s transactional and volatile world

The serial terror attacks in Paris on Friday was the third terror incident in recent times and by far the largest ever in France. These attacks were on the French or Western way of life, for its support to the US in Syria, and are meant to instil fear in the French.

It is often suggested that the live telecast of parliamentary proceedings, far from informing public debate on policy decision making, has pushed MPs to act or speak in a manner that sends the appropriate message to a mass audience outside, and always keeps the viewer in his or her drawing room in mind.

Although China is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, the second largest economy in the world and a rising power on the global stage, its approach to the current Syrian crisis has been nearly as passive as India's policy.

Whoever in India that says West Asia is Middle-East, Jammu and Kashmir is ¿Indian Kashmir¿ and painting the face with the national Tricolour at cricket stadia is the height of patriotism have got it all wrong. If anything, they are fast tracking towards a ¿patented one-world order¿, knowingly or otherwise, with India¿s soul and resilience of the past centuries being tormented, without trace or knowledge.

The concept of ‘gentrification’ has been studied extensively in urban agglomerations, specifically in tier-I and tier-II cities. ‘Gentrification’ is largely understood as the displacement of people belonging to certain classes in an area due to the influx of investment and affluent classes into that area. In India, settlements are based on religious and social vectors of caste, rather than economic vectors of class. With settlemen