KABUL (Pajhwok): Some analysts on Tuesday said the national unity government had started adopting a harsh stance against Pakistan to prevent further erosion of people’s trust in it.
Ten months into its tenure, the government seems to have lost patience with Pakistan and has announced its clearest stance yet on the neighbour’s role in the Afghan-led peace process.
KABUL (Pajhwok): A fiery President Ashraf Ghani said on Monday the recent wave of violence showed suicide training camps,facilities used for making explosive devices and sending them to Afghanistan to kill innocent people were still functional in Pakistan.
KABUL (Pajhwok): Claiming that the Shah Shaheed incident was not suicide bombing but an airstrike, dozens of protesters on Monday demanded the government thoroughly investigate the carnage and inform the nation about its findings.
However, earlier security forces said the incident took place due to vehicle bombing in the locality. Some media outlets also released CCTV footages, showing an explosive-laden truck exploded in the area.
KABUL (Pajhwok): Taliban on Wednesday rejected as baseless the latest United Nation Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) report about civilian causalities in the country.
A statement from the insurgents’ group said: “The report published by the UNAMA is a propaganda campaign against Taliban and a conspiracy hatched in connivance with the Kabul government. The report is baseless and far from reality.”
WASHINGTON (Pajhwok): There is no way the Taliban can defeat assertive Afghan national security forces, a top American general based in Afghanistan told a Washington audience on Tuesday.
At the maximum, the Taliban and allied insurgent organisations could conduct terrorist strikes, Gen. John Campbell, head of US and NATO forces, said in his address to Brookings Institute.
He acknowledged Afghan forces, in charge of more than 95 percent of counter-terrorism operations, had been experiencing a high level of casualties.
KABUL (Pajhwok): The UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Afghanistan on Wednesday said the consequences of Taliban’s leader death were yet to sink in, expressing optimism it would lead to the reopening of peace talks.
Speaking to journalists, Nicholas Haysom said it was not UN’s responsibility to lead the peace parleys on behalf of Afghanistan. “It’s our duty to convince the warring factions to sit across the negotiating table and support the peace process.”
KABUL (Pajhwok): President Mohammad Ashraf has said civilians are being targeted, which demonstrates that the enemy is growing weaker to create chaos among citizens.
A statement from the Presidential Palace said that the president expressed these views in hi video conference with security and defence officials at Tawhid coordination centre.
The president directed the officials concerned to thoroughly reevaluate security situation and work out a comprehensive plan to bolster law and order.
KABUL (Pajhwok): A ceremony to launch a book “Architects of the State” about life events and stories of 25 prominent persons in Afghanistan.
Shah Mehmood Miakhel, country director at the United States Institute of Peace, and Abdul Qayum Mashwani, an analyst, have jointly written the book about 25 persons who had played a vital role in materialistic and moral and spiritual reconstruction of Afghanistan in the recent past. The book has been published in Pashto and Dari languages. 
KABUL (Pajhwok): First Deputy Speaker Haji Zahir Qadeer has said that regional intelligence networks have the keys to either foment violence or initiate peace talks.
He expressed these views after donating blood for victims of yesterday devastated bombings that rocked capital Kabul.
Around 70 people, including security officials, had been killed and over 400 wounded in series of explosions during the last couple of days.
KABUL (Pajhwok): The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) urged anti-government elements, including the Taliban, to cease the use of complex and suicide attacks in civilian-populated areas.
A statement released by the UNAMA said that three attacks by anti-government elements in Kabul on August 7 caused at least 355 civilian casualties--- 42 deaths and 313 injured--- the highest number of civilians killed and injured in one day since UNAMA began systematically recording civilian casualties in 2009.