The kidnapping—followed by the killing of four Indian Air Force officers soon after, and the executions of Intelligence Bureau personnel—made the triumph of jihadism seem inevitable.
Part of a CIA-trained zero unit, Rahmanullah Lakanwal was evacuated to the US before the fall of Kabul in 2021. But his long journey failed to wash the blood from his mind.
Even as India, Pakistan have seemed on the edge of war, their intelligence services have often sought to find space to de-escalate tensions and reduce risks for the two countries.
Cutting trade ties with Pakistan is easier said than done: the neighbouring country is Afghanistan’s largest single trading partner, taking in 45 per cent of Afghan exports in 2024.
Fourteen million refugees, and 25 million facing acute hunger, should be reason enough for the world to dismantle the dystopia in Sudan — even if the sadism of its rulers is not.
Pakistan massively enhanced the funding for Islamists in Afghanistan, hoping to bury ethnic nationalism. That strategy has now backfired spectacularly.
The test raises a question. Why have Russian nuclear strategists now invested in the Burevestnik, when the US abandoned nuclear ramjet propulsion in 1964?
The US and Israel’s assassinations of Iranian leadership ended up bestowing martyrdom on those killed. Shias saw the deaths as a continuity of martyrdom from the Battle of Karbala.
India’s fast-growing data centre sector may strain state electricity networks; Central Electricity Authority has urged Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu to boost capacity.
Exclusive: Theaterisation proposal has been stuck over how limited air assets would be divided. Consensus reached on division of air assets among 3 theatres, it is learnt.
China patiently invested capital, skill and technology in coal gasification. Unlike it, we won’t move from words to action. As crude prices decline, we lose interest.
Swami spends an entire essay mourning the death of the Geneva Conventions — the same conventions that also ban using hospitals as military bunkers and hiding rockets in schools. Hamas does exactly that, on camera, repeatedly. Yet Hamas gets zero mentions. Gaza appears once, solely to blame Israel.
So apparently, humanitarian law is sacred — just not sacred enough to apply to everyone breaking it.
Nice sermon, Praveen. Kudos about the blind spot.
Swami spends an entire essay mourning the death of the Geneva Conventions — the same conventions that also ban using hospitals as military bunkers and hiding rockets in schools. Hamas does exactly that, on camera, repeatedly. Yet Hamas gets zero mentions. Gaza appears once, solely to blame Israel.
So apparently, humanitarian law is sacred — just not sacred enough to apply to everyone breaking it.
Nice sermon, Praveen. Kudos about the blind spot.