Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has accused the United States of seeing Pakistan as useful only in the context of the "mess" it is leaving behind in Afghanistan after 20 years of fighting. "Pakistan is just considered only to be useful in the context of somehow settling this mess which has been left behind after 20 years of trying to find a military solution when there was not one," Khan told foreign journalists at his home in Islamabad. United States has been pressing Pakistan to use its influence over the Taliban to broker an elusive peace deal as negotiations between the Taliban and Afghan government have stalled, and violence in Afghanistan has escalated sharply. The United States had announced the troop exit by the end of August, 20 years after toppling the Taliban govern...

On Wednesday, the Taliban captured the city of Faizabad in northern Afghanistan. Faizabad happens to be the ninth provincial capital to fall to the Taliban in less than a week. "Late last night, the security forces who had been fighting the Taliban for several days came under intense pressure. The Taliban have captured the city now. Both sides have also suffered heavy losses," said lawmaker Zabihullah Attiq. While on Tuesday, the Taliban had captured Farah city in western Afghanistan. A local lawmaker and the Taliban have confirmed the news. Farah city becomes the seventh provincial capital to fall since Friday. Pul-e-Khumri was the second provincial capital to fall to the Taliban on Tuesday besides Farah city, and the eighth since Friday. "This afternoon the Taliban entered...

On Tuesday, India started evacuating its staff from its consulate in Afghanistan's Mazar-e-Sharif in view of the rapidly escalating violence by the Taliban around the capital city of Balkh province, people familiar with the development informed. According to the latest report by PTI, the Indian-based staff of the consulate and a number of Indians residing in Mazar-e-Sharif are being evacuated due to the deteriorating security scenario in the city as well as areas around it, they said. It has come to the fore that a special aircraft of the Indian Air Force will evacuate the staff as well as the Indian citizens from the fourth-largest city of Afghanistan. "A special flight is leaving from Mazar-e-Sharif to New Delhi. Any Indian nationals in and around Mazar-e-Sharif are requested to...