Nitin Mehta, a defense analyst in India, commented on the United States approach: “The call for stepping up military aid to Afghanistan is not a changed response of Washington in diplomatic terms, but only in military terms, arising from the sanctions by the Western world on Russian Federation, thereby [pulling] the plug on supply of military spares”. This was stated by the top U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation commander in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson.
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Nicholson, who heads the U.S. operations in Afghanistan, met National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, foreign secretary S Jaishankar and defence secretary G Mohan Kumar and discussed Afghanistan and terrorism in the region. New Delhi also said it is “in touch with important interlocutors bilaterally as well as multilaterally to put across the correct picture” to the world of what is happening on the ground. Nicholson said that Afghanistan needed more military assistance to fight terrorism in the country.
He said we have tried and will continue to have the best of relations with the neighbouring countries especially Afghanistan, and that Pakistan supports the peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan as it is also in the interest of Pakistan. The U.S. forces left that position and ISIS now has weaponry, an ID card, and who knows what else when all was said and done. “We have already taken up the matter bilaterally with Pakistan, including our offer to provide consular access to this Pakistani terrorist”, Swarup said. It is very hard to count the exact number of killings, but this amounts is about 25 per cent of the organisation at least.
According to media reports, a Punjab Government Mi-17 helicopter crash landed in Afghanistan’s Logar province on Thursday last week and the insurgents took the crew hostage before setting the helicopter on fire.
Also on Monday, an Afghan general, Mohammad Zaman Waziri, indicated that the two militant groups might have formed an informal alliance.
However, Zakaria said Indian involvement in terrorist activities on Pakistani soil could not be ruled out and the confessional statement of India’s serving naval officer Kulbhushan Yadav had vindicated Pakistan’s stance in this regard.
Nicholson further said that the killing of Mullah Akhtar Mansour severely crippled Taliban operations in Afghanistan as it disrupted the flow of funds to militants.
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The Taliban offensive through last winter exhausted their stocks of arms and money, he said, adding that “this year, though they have attacked checkpoints, we don’t see anything where they hold terrain”.
