IDR Blog
Panjshir Needs Help
The Taliban’s rapid advance in Afghanistan has briefly stalled only in the face of strong resistance mounted by the people of the country’s recalcitrant mountainous province of Panjshir. Whoever controls the region’s passes controls the routes leading to China and Tajikistan, but to seize this mountain valley and, most importantly, to...
The Importance of Tibet – ‘Ethnic Work’ in Progress
Why are Members of the politburo of the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) Central Committee so attracted by Tibet these days? During the last two months, ten out of the twenty-five members of the politburo travelled to the Roof of the World. One remembers a Party Secretary, who later became Chinese President (and General Secretary of the CPC),...
1965 War: Battle of Assal Uttar
Background to the Battle With the failure of OPERATION GIBRALTAR and faced with Indian counter offensive across the Cease Fire Line in the Hajipir Bulge and Tithwal Sector, Pakistan launched OPERATION GRAND SLAM on September 1, 1965. It was a major attack with one infantry division and an armoured brigade at Chhamb with the aim of capturing...
Mingling like the Pomegranate Seeds
On June 8, China’s Core Leader Xi Jinping visited Haibei Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai Province. Meeting a group of Tibetan villagers relocated in one of the Xiaogang villages (‘moderately well-off’ villages, looking more like ghettos), the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) told the Tibetan villagers:...
US-Pak Divergence on Relations with Taliban
Afghanistan is in turmoil, perhaps worse than what happened anywhere during 2nd World War because then one was fighting a clearly defined enemy. Ordinary Afghan does not know who to fight and who to trust. In recent times (post 2nd WW) there has never been a situation in any country when citizens were begging to be taken out of their parent...