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Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Maulana Masood Azhar was in Kandahar in the third week of August after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan to seek their support in fomenting terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, sources said.

Masood Azhar met Taliban leaders including Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the head of political commission. Masood Azhar sought help from Taliban for JeM operations in the Kashmir Valley.

Earlier, Masood Azhar had expressed happiness over the Taliban's "victory" after they captured Kabul on August 15 praising the terror group for enforcing the collapse of "US-backed Afghanistan government". In his write-up titled "Manzil Ki Taraf" (towards the destination) on August 16, the JeM chief applauded the "success of mujahideen" in Afghanistan.

Indian Government is adopting a “wait-and-watch” approach in dealing with the Taliban, depending on the evolving situation, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is learnt to have said on Thursday while briefing all-party leaders on the Afghanistan situation.

Describing the situation as “critical”, he said the government is committed to “full evacuation” of Indians.

The Congress is learnt to have questioned the government on its strategy vis-a-vis the Taliban, asking whether it would engage with the Taliban. Sources in the Congress said the government’s response was “wishy-washy”.

Responding to a similar question while speaking to reporters after the meeting, Jaishankar said: "Let the situation settle... You will have to keep patience on the question of our future policy".

The Centre is learnt to have cleared all the nine names recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium for appointment to the top court, which currently has 24 judges against a sanctioned strength of 35.

Highly placed sources told media that the recommendations have been “processed, approved and forwarded to the President for issuance of warrants of appointment”. “If all goes well, the Supreme Court may see near full strength by early next week," the sources added.

The Supreme Court Collegium, comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices U U Lalit, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and L Nageswara Rao, had on August 17 recommended nine names, including eight High Court judges and an advocate, for elevation to the apex court.

Amid fear of possible COVID third wave, Chief Scientist of the World Health Organisation Dr Soumya Swaminathan on Tuesday said the coronavirus situation in India may be entering some kind of stage of endemicity where there is low or moderate level of transmission going on.

It must be noted that the endemic stage is when a population learns to live with a virus. However, it is different from the epidemic stage when the virus overwhelms a population.

Speaking to news website The Wire, Swaminathan said given the size of India and heterogeneity of population and immunity status in different parts of the country, it is "very very feasible" that the situation may continue like this with ups and downs in various parts of the nation.

India on Monday evacuated over 70 people, including its citizens and a group of Afghan Sikhs and Hindus, from Kabul to Dushanbe in Tajikistan in an IAF aircraft while another batch of near-equal strength is planned to be taken out of the Afghan capital to the Tajik city at the earliest, people familiar with the developments said. Separately, India brought back 146 of its nationals to Delhi in four different commercial flights from the Qatari capital Doha, days after they were evacuated from Kabul by NATO and American aircraft.

With Monday's evacuation, the number of people brought back to Delhi has gone up to around 730 since August 16 when the first group was airlifted from Kabul, a day after the Taliban seized control of the Afghan capital city. The people cited above said the evacuees, who were taken to Dushanbe, are likely to be brought back to Delhi from the Tajikistan capital in a civilian aircraft on Tuesday.