KABUL: A prominent Pakistani politician and religious figure Maulana Sami-ul-Haq has claimed the Afghan Taliban will support Pakistan in the event the country is invaded by the foreigners. The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam leader in a statement has said the Afghan Taliban leaders have declared their support to Islamabad during a gathering chaired by Mufti Mehmood Zakri. The statement was released from ...

ISLAMABAD: The multiparty conference held on Thursday to demand the swift merger of Fata with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa not only exposed the lack of coherence among stakeholders, but also saw some of the key players announcing their intention to block the mainstreaming of the tribal areas. Organised by the Awami National Party (ANP) to discuss the early merger of Fata with ...

KABUL: President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani on Wednesday chaired a high level defense meeting to discuss the latest security upheavals in the capital and other provinces of the country. The Office of the President, ARG Palace, said the meeting of the armed forces commander chief chaired by President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani focused on security situation of Kabul, Faryab, Jawzjan, Baghlan, Nuristan, ...

KABUL: American B-52 bombers have been flying continuous missions over Afghanistan for months to counter threats from Taliban and ISIS-linked terrorists, a report said on Thursday. “The flights have been part of an existing surge in air support as the service says it is still looking at how best to contribute to President Donald Trump’s new US strategy,” The War Zone reported. Over the past ...

The Adelaide Strikers have signed 18-year-old spinner Rashid Khan, who will be the first Afghan to play in the Big Bash League. An 18-year-old legspinner will become the first Afghan to play in Australia’s Big Bash League. Rashid Khan has been lured by the Adelaide Strikers after being among the most-successful bowlers in this year’s Indian Premier League. “It is ...

ISLAMABAD: Opposed to the government decision to extend jurisdiction of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to the Federally Adminis­tered Tribal Areas (Fata), the country’s major opposition parties believe that the move is another ploy to delay the long overdue reforms in the region. The opposition suspects that the government is now backtracking from its earlier agreed plan of merging Fata ...

AFP: Eight Afghans expelled from Germany arrived in Kabul on Wednesday as Berlin resumed deportations of rejected asylum seekers from the war-torn country months after a huge truck bomb hit the Afghan capital. Germany suspended the controversial expulsions after a sewage tanker packed with explosives detonated near the German embassy in Kabul’s diplomatic quarter on May 31, killing around 150 people and wounding ...

The Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said Pakistan is open to joint border patrols with the Afghan forces amid persistent US pressures on Pakistan regarding the terror safe havens often blamed for the major attacks in Afghanistan. Abbasi made the remarks during a press conference with the reporters on Tuesday, claiming that Pakistan does not provide safe havens ...

WASHINGTON: America cannot risk the dangers of leaving Afghanistan, President Trump’s nominee for US abassador to the war-torn country told lawmakers on Tuesday. “We cannot afford not to sustain our efforts in Afghanistan. As a nation, we cannot afford the increased risks and peril that would come from a wholesale departure or rapid reduction in our footprint in Afghanistan,” John R. Bass ...

BY GRIFF WITTE: In 2015, suspected Russian hackers broke into the computer networks of the German Parliament and made off with a mother lode of data — 16 gigabytes, enough to account for a million or more emails. Ever since, German politicians have been watching nervously for the fruits of that hack to be revealed, and for possible embarrassment and ...