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Volatile Afghan situation is out of Islamabad’s control: Pakistan’s NSA

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(Last Updated On: July 11, 2021)

Pakistan’s National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf has expressed concern over the worsening situation in Afghanistan, terming it “extremely bad and out of Pakistan’s control”.

Briefing the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs on Friday, he warned of an impending risk of an attack by Tehreek-i-Taliban, who, he said, could enter Pakistan from Afghanistan disguised as refugees.

The national security adviser stressed that the UN Refugee Agency needed to set up camps for Afghan refugees.

According to Pakistan’s Dawn News, Yusuf however, denied the presence of the Taliban in Pakistan and said the reports were “Indian propaganda”.

Yusuf said Pakistan was very concerned about the changing situation following the US troop withdrawal and that his country would be adversely affected by the growing violence.

“The region’s peace is conditional on peace in Afghanistan,” he said.

Yusuf further said that the Afghan government needed to work on improving relations with Pakistan if it wanted peace in the country, Dawn News reported.

“[Also], I don’t see the US offering a financial package to Afghanistan and in that case, only Pakistan can provide a trade route to the landlocked country,” he said.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi also briefed the committee, saying that Pakistan intended to suggest power sharing in Afghanistan to avoid civil war.

He added that in case of a civil war in Afghanistan, Pakistan would not be able to handle the influx of refugees.

The foreign minister said Taliban objected to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s participation in negotiations, adding that they were “intelligent and had grown wise” over time, Dawn News reported. He added that Taliban had changed after Doha talks.

He warned that in case the situation in “Afghanistan goes back to what it was in the 1990s”, Pakistan would have to deal with a refugee influx.

In this regard, he said, Pakistan would be monitoring illegal border crossings and was also fencing its borders.

“We have to manage things in a better manner to control terrorism,” the minister remarked.

Qureshi added that he, the prime minister and security officials had had meetings with the Uzbeks, Tajiks and Hazaras so as to make it clear to them that “there is no favourite in Afghanistan”.

“We want to play the role of a good neighbour and are not thinking about strategic depth [in Afghanistan],” he said. “Our policy on Afghanistan is clear. We want peace and stability in the country and not repeat our mistakes.”

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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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