In the 3rd and the last part of his first tell-all interview Ambassador Bharath Raj Muthu Kumar, India's most experienced diplomat on Afghanistan, reveals how a famous 'Bollywood baddie Ajit joke' led to huge strategic shift in India’s covert mission in Afghanistan, role of then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee and External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh's role in shaping India's mission, and the next war that the current developments would lead to.
Afghan Betrayal: Interview with Ambassador B R Muthu Kumar – Part 2
In Part 2 of his first tell-all interview Ambassador Bharath Raj Muthu Kumar, India's most experienced diplomat on Afghanistan, reveals how Kabul and Panjshir fell, the future of the resistance movement against Taliban, and what are the strategic interests of China, Turkey, Qatar, and the US in Afghanistan.
Afghan Betrayal: Interview with Ambassador B R Muthu Kumar – Part 1
In Part 1 of his first tell-all interview Ambassador Bharath Raj Muthu Kumar, India's most experienced diplomat on Afghanistan, reveals what's happening in the region, the old and new Taliban, and how Pakistan finds itself checkmated.
The New York Times obtained exclusive security camera footage and witness accounts to show how the military launched a drone strike that killed 10 people in Kabul on Aug. 29 without knowing whom it was hitting.
‘Imminent Threat’ or Aid Worker: Did a U.S. Drone Strike in Afghanistan Kill the Wrong Person? (The New York Times)
The Great Afghan Betrayal: A Palace Coup? – Part 4
The future trajectory of Pakistan’s complex manoeuvres in Afghanistan is moving towards building structured co-located terror units with active Pakistan military support. It is now a question of timing as to when some of these units will be directed towards India and Jammu and Kashmir.
Migrant jihadis: ISIS freed from Raqqa, in search of endless battles
The mad pursuit for a New Middle East, repeatedly thwarted, keeps resurfacing, hydra-like. The driving force behind the neocon dream has metastasized into all sorts of outlandish and frightful scenarios. Has the strategic community forgotten founder of Blackwater, Eric Prince’s idea of “governing” Afghanistan exactly as the British governed India in early 20th century – under a “Viceroy”.
Head in cashless sand, as global events pass India by
While New Delhi is busy with the demonetisation upheaval, it may find itself paces too slow in coping with the new strategic dynamic engulfing the region. Neither Kabul nor New Delhi can be sanguine about the high level meeting in Moscow on Afghanistan to which China and Pakistan were invited.