KABUL, 01 October 2021, (TON): Thousands of Afghans trying to escape the misery at home have flocked to their country's southern border with Pakistan, but their attempts to get across have been stopped by the Taliban.

Zakariullah, sitting on a dirt road in the trading town of Spin Boldak only a few hundred metres from Pakistan, says he has been turned back more than half a dozen times, sometimes violently.

"They say only people from the area with papers," Zakariullah, a 25-year-old farmer and father of three, told media.

"We want to cross the border to work there because there are no jobs here."

The new Taliban rulers insist Afghans need to stay and rebuild their conflict-ravaged country.

"They tell people 'It’s your country. You should not leave'," said 25-year-old Rahmadin Wardak, who was also trying to flee.

On the other side, their Pakistani counterparts in Chaman were also stopping those attempting to cross.

One Taliban border guard, Mullah Maulvi Haqyar, told media "every day, 8,000 to 9,000 people try to cross the border without having the necessary papers, and are turned back."

NEW DELHI, 01 October 2021, (TON): An Indian company entered into a $700 million deal to build a strategic deep-sea container terminal in Sri Lanka, officials said “in a move seen as countering China's rising influence in the region.”

The Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) said “it signed an agreement with India's Adani Group to build a brand-new terminal next to a $500-million Chinese-run jetty at the sprawling port in the capital Colombo.”

The SLPA said in a statement "the agreement worth more than $700 million is the largest foreign investment ever in the port sector of Sri Lanka."

It said Adani will enter into a partnership with a local conglomerate, John Keells, and the Sri Lankan government-owned SLPA as a minority partner.

John Keells said “it will have 34 per cent of the company while Adani will have a 51 per cent controlling stake in the joint venture known as the Colombo West International Terminal.

The new container jetty will be 1.4 kilometres in length, with a depth of 20 metres and an annual capacity to handle 3.2 million containers.

The first phase of the project with a 600-metre terminal is due to be completed within two years, the company said. The terminal will revert to Sri Lanka ownership after 35 years of operation.

Plans to allow India into the strategic Colombo port goes back several years, but they were scuttled in February when trade unions linked to the ruling coalition opposed giving New Delhi a partially built terminal within the port.

Later, the government asked Indians to build a brand-new terminal adjoining the Chinese-operated Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT).

ISLAMABAD, 01 October 2021, (TON): The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said “a Pakistan Army captain was martyred during an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in Tank, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa against Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.”

In a statement, the military's media affairs wing said that security forces conducted an operation after receiving information about the presence of terrorists in the area.

The statement said “during the exchange of fire, Captain Sikander, who was 27-years-old and hailed from Pakpattan, was martyred.

The statement added "TTP commander Khawaza din alias Sher Khan was killed. Weapons and ammunition were recovered from the hideout.”

Security forces killed 10 terrorists in a similar operation in the South Waziristan tribal district.

The ISPR said “security forces conducted the operation after receiving information that terrorists were present at a hideout in the area.”

During intense exchange of fire, 10 terrorists, including four commanders, were killed, it said, adding that weapons and a large quantity of ammunition were also recovered.

ISLAMABAD, 01 October 2021, (TON): The representatives from 49 countries including Pakistan attended the International Military Flight Training Conference 2021 held in Zhuhai, China.

Twelve Chinese and foreign guests from military and civilian circles made speeches around the theme of “Talent, Innovation, Collaboration, Development” at the conference hosted by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF).

An official from the PLAAF said “at the session that the air force development and future intelligentised air battles have put forward new requirements for the competence of pilots, and the PLAAF is engaged in forward production of new-type pilots following the guideline that talent cultivation, commanding system and armaments development should proceed in coordination, according to China Military Online.

Li Xiaocheng, vice president of Chinese PLA Air Force Command College, said “cultivating air force commanders for the era of intelligent air battle will be an important brand-new topic in the development of air force.”

According to Li, the simulated training mode will be upgraded from “simulation + network” to “virtual + intelligent”, and the training exercise pattern will be evolved from “life-fire confrontation” to “virtual-real combined intelligent confrontation”, with the training assessment upgraded from “manual-based” to “intelligent-based”.

WASHINGTON, 30 September 2021, (TON): Twenty two US senators have moved a bill in the Senate that seeks to assess Pakistan’s alleged role in Afghanistan before and after the fall of Kabul and in the Taliban offensive in Panjshir Valley.

Senator Jim Risch, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and other Republicans introduced the Afghanistan Counterterrorism, Oversight, and Accountability Act in the Senate on Monday to address outstanding issues related to the Biden administration’s “rushed and disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.”

The proposed legislation calls for a comprehensive report on who supported the Taliban during America's 20 years in Afghanistan, helped the group in capturing Kabul in mid-August and supported their offensive on Panjshir Valley.

The proposed legislation requires the secretary of state, in consultation with the secretary of defence and the director of national intelligence, to submit a report on entities providing support to the Taliban to the appropriate congressional committees.

The report must reach the relevant committees “not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this act, and not less frequently than annually thereafter”.

The first report shall include “an assessment of support by state and non-state actors, including the government of Pakistan, for the Taliban between 2001 and 2020,” including the provision of sanctuary space, financial support, intelligence support, logistics and medical support, training, equipping, and tactical, operation or strategic direction.

The legislation also requires an assessment of support by state and non-state actors, including the government of Pakistan, for the September 2021 offensive of the Taliban against the Panjshir Valley and the Afghan resistance.

NEW DELHI, 30 September 2021, (TON): According to the latest update by the US Trade Representative’s office “India-US bilateral trade in goods and services stood at $146.1 billion in 2019.”

Union minister Piyush Goyal proposed an ambitious target of $1 trillion for India-US bilateral trade over the next 10 years even as he expressed frustration over the failure of the two sides to conclude an agreement despite multiple rounds of talks with the former Donald Trump-led US administration.

India-US bilateral trade in goods and services stood at $146.1 billion in 2019, according to the latest update by the US Trade Representative’s office.

Goyal said at the virtual annual leadership summit of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum, an advocacy group “India and the US can be two countries which should be looking at a balanced future trade of upwards of $1 trillion dollars in the next 10 years.”

He added “unless we keep some very ambitious targets, we’ll never get there. I’m happy to look at a trillion dollar target for the next 10 years between the US and India. I’m happy to engage with the US, and look for expanding our economic partnership.”

India-US trade is up against another ambitious target, one that was fixed by President Joe Biden when he was vice-president in the administration of president Barack Obama. In a speech at the Bombay Stock Exchange during his visit to India in 2012, Biden had suggested a “five-fold” increase in the volume of the bilateral trade, which had then stood at $100 billion.

ROME, 30 September 2021, (TON): An emergency G20 summit on the situation in Afghanistan will take place on 12 October. This was announced at a press conference by Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi.

The initiative for such a summit to discuss the situation in the country after the withdrawal of foreign troops within the framework of the NATO mission belongs to the Italian presidency of the Group of Twenty. Rome insists on involving Russia, China and Turkey in solving the problem.

Draghi twice discussed preparations for this summit by telephone with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Italian prime minister said “I will tell you about the nearest international even-ts. An extraordinary summ-it on Afghanistan will take place on October 12.”

The Italian prime minister said “We need to look at the commonality of goals of all the G20 countries,” Draghi added. He specified that the country facing a humanitarian catastrophe primarily faces humanitarian goals. “This is a humanitarian catastrophe, the country has no external support. It is necessary that the richest countries do something.”

The second issue on the agenda of the emergency summit, according to Draghi, will be the discussion of what steps the G20 countries are ready to take so that Afghanistan does not again become a nest of international terrorism.

WASHINGTON, 30 September 2021, (TON): The US Air Force RC-135V strategic reconnaissance aircraft made another long flight near the borders of the Leningrad, Pskov and Kaliningrad regions, follows from the data of Western air resources.

According to them, the electronic reconnaissance aircraft, which took off from the Mildenhall airbase in Great Britain, initially flew along the borders of the Pskov and Leningrad regions in the airspace of Latvia and Estonia, and then headed for the Kaliningrad region.

The aircraft flew over the Kaliningrad region from Lithuania, the Baltic Sea and Poland.

In total, the RC-135V was near the Russian border for over 3.5 hours.

Before approaching the Russian borders on Wednesday, an American reconnaissance aircraft circled over northwestern Poland for a long time, and then unexpectedly landed at the German airfield Rostock-Laage. It is possible that this happened for technical reasons.

Two tactical electronic reconnaissance aircraft of the US Army Beechcraft RC-12X Guardrail also flew near the borders of the Kaliningrad region in Lithuanian airspace. These twin-engine turboprop aircraft are based in Siauliai (Lithuania).

ISLAMABAD, 30 September 2021, (TON): Islamabad reacted to the draft bill introduced in the US Senate seeking sanctions against Pakistan along with the Afghan Taliban, terming references to the country, which remained the frontline state in the US-led campaign in Afghanistan, as “unwarranted”.

Separately, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed rejected allegations that Pakistan had provided any military support to the Afghan Taliban.

The reaction from the Foreign Office as well as from the interior minister came a day after 22 US Senators from the Republican Party moved a draft bill that sought sanctions against the Taliban but also called for assessing the alleged role Pakistan played since 2001 in supporting the insurgent group.

The 57-page draft bill called ‘‘Afghanistan Counterterrorism, Oversight, and Accountability Act of 2021’’ made several references to Pakistan.

The draft bill read “an assessment of support by state and non-state actors, including the Government of Pakistan for the Taliban between 2001 and 2020, including the provision of sanctuary space, financial support, intelligence support, logistics and medical support, training, equipping, and tactical, operational, or strategic direction.”

It also calls for an assessment about the alleged role of the state, non-state actors as well as the government of Pakistan in supporting the Taliban offensive leading to the fall of Kabul.

KABUL, 30 September 2021, (TON): Turkey’s ambassador to Afghanistan met the Taliban’s second acting deputy prime minister and assured of strengthening bilateral ties between Kabul and Ankara, an official statement said.

Ambassador Cihad Erginay and the Taliban’s Abdul Salam Hanafi “emphasised the strong bonds between Turkish and Afghan people and reaffirmed their commitments to further bolster the relations between our brotherly nations," during the meeting, the Turkish Embassy said on Twitter.

Erginay has also met with the Taliban’s Acting Commerce Minister Nooruddin Azizi in a bid to boost bilateral trade.

The embassy tweeted “they (Erginary and Azizi) expressed their joint commitment to boosting bilateral trade volume as well as increasing industrial output and discussed ways to achieve these goals.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip said last month Ankara was ready to help Afghanistan recover from years of conflict and strife if the nation also looks out for its own unity and solidarity.