Afghanistan’s president said Tuesday that he was in no rush to sign a security deal with the United States, once again dashing American hopes that a pact can be quickly finalized. The United States wants a deal by October to give American and NATO military planners enough time to prepare for to keep some troops in the country after a scheduled 2014 withdrawal, instead of a total pull-out. Afghanistan and th ...

Supporters of Bangladesh’s largest Islamic party clashed with police Wednesday amid a nationwide strike called to protest a court’s ruling that one of the opposition party’s leaders should be executed for war crimes. One man was killed when he was hit by a stone thrown by opposition supporters outside the capital, police said. Bangladesh’s Supreme Court on Tuesday sentenced Abdul Quader Mollah, a senior mem ...

A look at some leading potential candidates for Afghanistan’s presidency By Associated Press, Published: September 16 KABUL, Afghanistan — Would-be candidates for the presidency of Afghanistan have through Oct. 6 to formally declare their intentions, and it’s anyone’s guess who will end up running and who will win. Afghan politics are largely about patronage and being on the winning team, so many potential ...

Posted by Javed Iqbal No Army in the world wants to engage in fratricidal counterinsurgency operations; pitching its firepower against its misdirected countrymen who for whatever misconceived motivations may choose to turn their guns on their compatriots and the armed forces. Before the Twin Towers in the Manhattan district of New York came crashing down in the early morning hours on Sep Eleven, the prospec ...

Posted by Javed Iqbal The challenging relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan has long been locked in horns. There have been too many ups and downs to call the relationship anything but one that is sustainable, mature and long lasting. While the two-day mid-April Afghan military visit to Pakistan indicated thawing in relationship, a series of cross border incidents and Afghanistan’s severe official re ...

By Brigadier (r) Iftikhar Ayub Khan For a Government as well as a soldier peace is the ultimate desire. No war plan is complete that fails to see through and beyond the end game. And all horrors of war must culminate into peace and that is what the 16th Century jurists believed that end of war must bring peace under conditions acceptable to both sides irrespective of winners and losers. The message was lost ...

By Brigadier (Retd) IftikharAyub Khan The senseless killings of the civilians by Egyptian Armed Forces reminds me of three Pakistan Army brigadiers who refused (and preferred to resign) than to fire at the civilians during agitations at Lahore that ultimately saw the demise of ZA Bhutto. And till to date Pakistan Army is holding this tradition. Well we are not comparing the two Forces i.e. one that has beco ...

Posted by Javed Iqbal Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called him “a brave son of India”; his dead body was flown in from Lahore in a special Air India aircraft chartered by the Government of India to Rajasansi Airport Amritsar where political leaders including Indian Punjab deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and minister of state for external affairs Preneet Kaur, were present to receive the body. Then ...