Taking strong exception to the recent statements of two of Navjot Singh Sidhu’s advisers on sensitive national issues like Kashmir and Pakistan, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Sunday warned against such “atrocious” and “ill-conceived” comments that were “potentially dangerous” to the peace and stability of the state and the country.

Captain Amarinder urged Sidhu’s advisors to stick to giving advice to the PPCC president and not speak on matters of which they clearly had little or no knowledge, and had no understanding of the implications of their comments.

The Chief Minister was reacting to reported remarks of Dr Pyare Lal Garg questioning his (Captain Amarinder’s) criticism of Pakistan, as well as the earlier controversial statement of Malwinder Singh Mali on Kashmir. Both of them were recently appointed by Sidhu as his advisers.

Captain Amarinder expressed shock at the extraordinary statements of Mali and Garg, which he said were totally misplaced and antagonistic to the stated position of India and the Congress on Pakistan and Kashmir. He urged the Punjab Congress president to rein in his advisers before they end up doing more damage to India’s interests.

A special repatriation flight by the Indian Air Force—carrying 168 passengers, including 107 Indians–landed on Sunday morning at the Hindon air base near Delhi from Kabul. There were 24 Sikhs, including two Afghan MPs, among the evacuees.

One of the two Afghan parliamentarian broke down after landing at the Hindon air force base early. Parliamentarian Narender Singh Khalsa had to frequently wipe away his tears as he talked to reporters. He said, “Everything is now finished.” “I feel like crying…Everything that was built in the last 20 years is now finished. It’s zero now,” he said when a reporter asked him about how he feels after being forced to leave his country.

The Afghanistan MP further said that at least 200 Hindu Sikhs are stranded in the war-torn country. “The situation is worrisome. But religious places are safe as of now,” he added.

Khalsa also said, “The Taliban are troubling MPs, senators and others by conducting searches in their homes and seizing guns and vehicles.”

Earlier he had put out a video in which he thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Indian government for rescuing people from Afghanistan, which was taken over by the Taliban a week ago. He expressed extreme gratitude to the government for safely evacuating him and others to India amid a situation of crisis.

An Afghan woman who was among the evacuees said that situation was worrisome in her country. “Situation was deteriorating in Afghanistan, so I came here with my daughter and two grandchildren. Our Indian

The Union Finance Ministry has summoned Salil Parekh, the MD and CEO of Infosys, over glitches in the new Income Tax e-filing portal. Parekh has been asked to appear on Monday to explain to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman why the glitches on the portal have not been resolved yet.

“Ministry of Finance has summoned Salil Parekh, MD & CEO @Infosys on 23/08/2021 to explain to hon’ble FM as to why even after 2.5 months since launch of the new e-filing portal, glitches in the portal have not been resolved. In fact, since 21/08/2021 the portal itself is not available,” the Income Tax department said in a tweet on Sunday.

Infosys was in 2019 awarded a contract

Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Sunday cited the evacuations from Afghanistan to support the Citizenship Amendment Act, which allows citizenship to persecuted non-Muslims in neighbouring Muslim majority nations who reached India before 2015.

“Recent developments in our volatile neighbourhood and the way Sikhs and Hindus are going through a harrowing time are precisely why it was necessary to enact the Citizenship Amendment Act,” he tweeted.

Earlier in the day, 168 people, 28 of them Afghan nationals including two MPs, landed in India. The government has promised help to Hindus and Sikhs from Afghanistan, as well as its friends in the country who need help.

“India must not only protect our citizens, but also provide refuge to Sikh and Hindu minorities who want to come to India. We must also provide all possible help to our Afghan brothers and sisters who are looking towards India for assistance,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi was quoted as saying at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee of Security last week.

People in Afghanistan have been rushing to leave the country after the Taliban seized control last week. On 15 August, the country’s government fell soon after President Ashraf Ghani left the country.

Countries have been urgently evacuating their citizens from the war-torn nation. The Kabul airport is witnessing nowadays a heavy chaos due to instability in the region.

The MEA has said the government is committed to the safe return of all Indian nationals from Afghanistan. The MEA said that the main challenge for travel to and from Afghanistan is the operational status of the Kabul airport.

Spokesperson of the ministry of external affairs (MEA), Arindam Bagchi, tweeted earlier to say that two Nepalese citizens were among those on board the Air India flight from Kabul.

The CAA allows persecuted minorities belonging to the Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi, and Christian communities from Pakistan,

ISLAMABAD: Afghanistan Taliban have set up a three-member commission to look into Islamabad’s complaints that the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), commonly known as the Pakistani Taliban, is using Afghan soil to plot cross-border terrorist attacks, a media report said.

“TTP leaders are being warned (by the Afghan Taliban Commission) to settle their problems with Pakistan and return to the country along with their families in exchange for a possible amnesty by the Pakistani government,” Voice of America reported citing sources in Islamabad. The terror group has been working hard to press anti-Pakistani militants to stop violence against Islamabad and has asked them to return to Afghanistan, VOA reported.

“We have been taking up the issue of the use of Afghan soil by the TTP for terrorist activities in Pakistan with the previous Afghan government and we will continue raising the issue with the future Afghan government as well to ensure that TTP is not provided any space in Afghanistan to operate against Pakistan,” Pakistani Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said on Friday. 

STOCKHOLM: Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven of the Social Democrats party, on Sunday, announced that he will step down as party leader in November.

A year ahead of Sweden’s next election, Lofven announced his resignation at his annual summer speech, held in Akersberga near Stockholm, reported a Swedish local daily. “The decision has matured over time. I have been party chairman for ten years, prime minister for seven. These years have been amazing. But everything comes to an end. I want to give my successor the best of conditions,” he said.

Former trade union chief Lofven took the reins of the Social Democrats in 2012 and led his party to two successful elections in 2014 and 2018. Lofven came into politics after heading up one of Sweden’s most powerful trade unions, IF Metall, following a career as a welder. He is known for his negotiation skills, and has had ample opportunity to flex them during his tenure but the party has been struggling in the polls. Just months after taking power, his party failed to push its budget through, and Lofven called a snap election, but this was cancelled after crisis talks, reported the local newspaper.

In the next election in 2018, his party got its worst result in over a century, and it took four months of negotiations before a new government was put together. Earlier this summer, he became Sweden’s first Prime Minister in history to lose a no-confidence vote, following a row over rent controls. However, the opposition was unable to form a viable coalition to take over, and so Lofven returned to the helm again, only two weeks later.