These 10 images prove we live in a wonderfully weird world.
The billions India invested in dams, schools, etc in Afghanistan will be gone. The Hindu and Sikh population of Afghanistan has already shrunk from some 200,000 to about 500, points out Rajeev Srinivasan.
The US military efforts in Afghanistan were akin to filling a bucket that had gaping holes, asserts Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'The worst case scenario for Pakistan is a full-scale Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.' 'Pakistani militants would be inspired and emboldened and seek to replicate the Taliban's successes in Pakistan.'
'A sense of purpose is lacking in India's diplomacy.' 'This is what happens when foreign policy becomes the stuff for grandstanding before the domestic audience,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Pakistan's military can go to any length to inflict harm on India, so don't write off the possibility of an ISI-IS alliance, says Rajeev Sharma.
India on Tuesday made a strong pitch for a positive and constructive approach from neighbours of Afghanistan including an end to support for violence as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani discussed key issues including security and connectivity.
Hamid Karzai has termed Prince Harry's remarks about killing Taliban fighters and comparing war to video games as a 'mistake', for which the Afghan President said the young British Royal should be forgiven.
A Pakistani journalist claims to have been receiving life threats from an American agency for critically writing against the Obama administration and for reporting its secret operations in the country.
In a startling discovery, Arabic television channel Al Jazeera has found video footage of a American soldiers planning to distribute Bible printed in Pashtu and Dari languages, to locals in Afghanisthan. The books were printed and sent by a church in the US.
'The real test will be in defence-related deals, for instance the Javelin anti-tank missile: Is the US willing to co-develop something with India, on terms that will support the 'Make in India' initiative? Is there defence technology transfer? Or will it dump old junk on India?' asks Rajeev Srinivasan.
Two days after saying that he did not consider India a threat to Pakistan and it was the internal terrorist threat from within that is of concern, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari was splitting hairs saying the larger threat from India and the so-called existential internal threat as the US has continued to describe it, were different.
'It is likely that when Obama is in India, Manmohan Singh will announce a new 'package' which would, shorn of marketing verbiage, hand over either all of Jammu and Kashmir or just the Vale of Kashmir to the stone-throwers and other separatists.'
'Unfortunately, the most likely outcome is that they will press India to give in to the ISI, or, equally disastrously, ask for Indian troops to join them in Afghanistan.'
Diplomatic observers and South Asia experts in the US do not believe that two of India's major concerns that Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh brought up with President Obama on Afghanistan, during his state visit in November and again recently on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit have been alleviated during the summit between Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
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