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Ram Mandir event. The decision led to a major political controversy as the BJP accused Congress of being anti-Hindu. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that they should not have been invited in the first place.

A silver lining seems to have appeared around the clouds of war over West Asia. Donald Trump put off by five days the US threat of bombing Iran’s energy infrastructure just hours before his 48-hour deadline was to expire for Iranian forces to open the Strait of Hormuz.The US President cited “very good and productive conversations regarding a complete and total resolution of hostilities in the Middle East” between the US and Iran over the past two days as the reason for his decision.

Even as the US-Israel war on Iran has put the world on edge, another flare-up closer home is threatening regional stability. As Kabul has reported, at least 400 people were killed in an airstrike by Pakistan that struck a hospital in Afghanistan.

There’s a full fledged war going on between once-close neighbours Pakistan and Afghanistan. The two have been trading deadly shelling and mortar fire across their border, with Pakistan Defence Minister Khwaja Asif saying on Friday that his country’s patience had “run out” and declaring “open war” on its neighbour.

Islamist militants along the country's western border with Afghanistan, a statement said on Sunday. It said border troops killed all the militants in an exchange of fire during the night between March 22 and 23 in North Waziristan district. «Own troops effectively engaged and thwarted their attempt to infiltrate,» the army statement said. Islamabad says that Islamist militants who attack inside Pakistan, and against the army have safe havens in Afghanistan, a charge Kabul denies. The incident took place as Pakistan's Special Representative for Afghanistan Sadiq Khan is on a two-day official visit to Kabul to talk about bilateral and economic issues, a statement from Pakistan's embassy in Kabul said.

Sirajuddin Haqqani, who acknowledged planning a January 2008 attack on the Serena Hotel in Kabul, which killed six people, including US citizen Thor David Hesla, no longer appears on the State Department's Rewards for Justice website. The FBI website on Sunday still featured a wanted poster for him. Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani said the U.S. government had revoked the bounties placed on Haqqani, Abdul Aziz Haqqani, and Yahya Haqqani. «These three individuals are two brothers and one paternal cousin,» Qani told the Associated Press. The Haqqani network grew into one of the deadliest arms of the Taliban after the U.S.-led 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.

United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday expressed gratitude to the Pakistani government for assisting in the arrest of a key terrorist involved in the 2021 Kabul airport bombing. «Three and a half years ago, a [Daesh] terrorist killed 13 American service members and countless others in the Abbey Gate bombing,» Trump said during his address to a joint session of Congress. He added, «Tonight, I am pleased to announce that we have just apprehended the top terrorist responsible for that atrocity. And he is right now on his way here to face the swift sword of American justice.» The attack at Kabul airport in August 2021 claimed the lives of 13 US service members and around 170 Afghan civilians during the chaotic withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan.

Taliban representative to the country soon, the latest step from New Delhi to improve ties with Kabul and counter China’s growing influence in Afghanistan.

Joe Biden spoke on with relatives of three Americans the US government is looking to bring home from Afghanistan but no agreement has been reached on a deal to get them back, family members said. Biden's call with family members of Ryan Corbett, George Glezmann and Mahmood Habibi took place in the waning days of his administration as officials try to negotiate a deal that could bring them home in exchange for Muhammad Rahim, one of the remaining detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Corbett, who had lived in Afghanistan with his family at the time of the 2021 collapse of the US-backed government, was abducted by the Taliban in August 2022 while on a business trip and Glezmann, an airline mechanic from Atlanta, was taken by the Taliban's intelligence services in December 2022 while travelling through the country. Officials believe the Taliban is still holding both men as well as Habibi, an Afghan American businessman who worked as a contractor for a Kabul-based telecommunications company and also went missing in 2022. The FBI has said that Habibi and his driver were taken along with 29 other employees of the company but that all except for Habibi and another person have since been freed.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. It was a warm night in Kabul. Just days earlier, on August 15th 2021, the Taliban had seized control of the Afghan capital, and with it, the country.

Taliban's announcement that it will retaliate against Pakistan's cross-border airstrikes. Such a drastic move by Kabul may have a spillover effect in the region and Eurasia where India has wide-ranging stakes.

Joe Biden's leadership, multiple military families reported that they were forced to wait for hours on the tarmac at Dover Air Force Base while the president allegedly napped on Air Force One. This event occurred during the dignified transfer ceremony for 13 U.S. service members killed in a suicide bombing at Kabul's Abbey Gate on August 26, 2021, a tragedy that claimed the lives of American soldiers and over 170 Afghan civilians.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Last month the Taliban published a new consolidated code of religious laws. It has left Afghan women reeling, with many now searching for ways to leave.

Shoigu, a former defence minister, also said the U.S. should play a leading role in rebuilding Afghanistan in view of its many years of military involvement in the country. Taliban leaders asked Shoigu to help them ease the pressure imposed by U.S. sanctions against the Kabul government, according to the Russian news agency reports.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Thirteen years have passed since al-Qaeda’s last big plot against America, a botched effort to blow up New York’s subway in 2009. The war in Afghanistan is over.

Afghanistan in August 2021. The report contends that the administration made its decision to evacuate noncombatants far too late, formally ordering it only on Aug. 16, failed to communicate between departments in Washington and among officials in Afghanistan, and botched the paperwork for the departure of Afghan civilians eligible to leave the country. It is the result of a three-year investigation led by Representative Michael McCaul, Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

police said, killing six people and wounding 13 more. Violence has waned in Afghanistan since the 2021 Taliban takeover, however, several militant groups remain active including the regional chapter of Islamic State. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Monday afternoon's attack, which took place in the Qala-e-Bakhtiar area of Kabul's southern outskirts.

Donald Trump’s campaign was warned about not taking photographs before an altercation at Arlington National Cemetery during a wreath-laying ceremony earlier this week to honour service members killed in the Afghanistan War withdrawal, a defense official told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Trump was embroiled in controversy Wednesday after a report that his entourage shoved staff during a politicized visit to the United States's most hallowed resting place for its war dead. National Public Radio reported late Tuesday that an Arlington National Cemetery official tried to prevent the Republican's aides from filming and photographing in a section reserved for those killed in recent wars — and where filming is banned. Trump staffers responded by shoving and verbally abusing the employee, the report said.

Afghanistan, the Taliban government has achieved some diplomatic wins even as it has consolidated power and enforced its strict version of Islamic law. The Taliban rulers continue to operate without official recognition from any country — its restrictions on women a major sticking point. But concern over Afghanistan's worsening humanitarian crisis, the threat of terrorism, and hard-nosed pragmatism have led to some international engagement.