Afghanistan News October 14, 2003

October 14, 2003

U.N. OKs Expanding Afghan Peacekeeping
By NICK WADHAMS, Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Monday to expand the 5,500-strong NATO-led force in Afghanistan to areas beyond the capital, KabulThe vote, which had been expected, comes after Afghan President Hamid Karzai called on the world body last month to deploy peacekeepers into regions where increasing lawlessness is causing many Afghans to long for the security that marked the rule of the rigid Taliban regime.

The Afghan government, which took over after the U.S.-led coalition ousted the Taliban militia, has little control in most of the 32 provinces, where governors often rule like warlords with private militias. Karzai warned that unless the world steps up its reconstruction aid and sends more troops, Islamic radicals could regain control in Afghanistan.

"This resolution helps pave the way for the increased security in Afghanistan upon which nearly everything else is dependent," said John Negroponte, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and the council's president for October.

The 15-member council approved the decision in a speedy meeting Monday without debate, after NATO's secretary-general, Lord Robertson, sent Negroponte a letter seeking a vote on the German-drafted resolution. Taliban and al-Qaida rebels have been launching increasingly bold assaults in recent months, raiding police stations, killing aid workers and confronting U.S. troops in growing numbers.

Many of the attacks have taken place in the south and east of the country, near the border with Pakistan. Afghan and Western officials have long complained that the insurgents have found a safe haven in Pakistan, crossing the border frequently to launch attacks.

Germany's U.N. Ambassador Gunter Pleuger is leading a Security Council mission to Afghanistan on Oct. 31 to study the work of the United Nations and the peacekeeping mission. NATO took over command of the multinational force in August from Germany and the Netherlands. German and Canadian troops make up the bulk of the current force.

UN Extends NATO-Led Afghan Force Role Beyond Kabul
By Irwin Arieff
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The Security Council on Monday authorized the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Afghanistan to send troops anywhere in the country rather than keep them confined to the capital, Kabul, and its environs. A resolution approved unanimously by the 15-nation council expanded the scope of the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, mission so it could provide security across the central Asian nation, a change long sought by Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the United Nations.

But the measure, which also renews the ISAF's U.N. mandate for another year, is likely to have little immediate impact as few countries are willing to commit troops at this time.

"This resolution helps pave the way for the increased security in Afghanistan on which everything else is dependent," said U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte, the Security Council president for October. While Washington was initially cool to the idea, it changed its mind after NATO took the ISAF command on Aug. 11, he said.

The first new troops in rural Afghanistan are expected to come from Germany, which has said it wants to send up to 450 soldiers to the northern district of Kunduz to form a Provincial Reconstruction Team, a group of aid workers under military protection.

Germany agreed to do so only if its soldiers were a part of the NATO mission and not the U.S. force in Afghanistan of some 12,500 soldiers that is trying to track down al Qaeda and Taliban militants in the south.

The U.S. forces are those that remain in the country nearly two years after the United States invaded Afghanistan to topple its Taliban rulers after the Sept. 11, 2001, hijack attacks. Washington blamed Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network for the attacks and accused the Taliban of providing them with a safe haven.
But the Taliban has stepped up its military activity in recent months. More than 300 people, including aid workers, U.S. soldiers and many Taliban guerrillas, have been killed in violence across the country since early August.

Relief groups and U.N. staffers, in particular, have raised alarms over what they see as a trend of rising armed attacks on humanitarian workers in the Afghan provinces, which are largely under the control of a patchwork of feuding warlords.

Council members initially hesitant to send the multinational peacekeeping force into the provinces have now changed their minds, in hopes improved security would help Karzai's shaky Afghan Transitional Administration expand its authority across the country.

NATO agreed in principle last week to take the force beyond the capital. NATO Secretary-General George Robertson then wrote to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to request a wider Security Council mandate for the 5,500-strong ISAF.

But Robertson said that taking the peacekeeping operation into the provinces would have to wait until NATO members, many of them militarily overstretched, offered the needed troops. NATO military planners last month proposed various options for expanding the peacekeeping mission, suggesting additional forces of between 2,000 and 10,000 would be needed.

Party of Ex-Afghan King's Cousin Protests
By PAUL HAVEN, Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan - A political party run by the cousin of Afghanistan's former king lashed out at President Hamid Karzai on Monday, calling him an unsuitable leader whose administration has done nothing to re-establish security in the war-ravaged country. "This government is not a lawful government and it is not a government that was established in accordance with the desire of the people," said Azizullah, the deputy head of the National Unity Movement, which backs a return to constitutional monarchy.

The movement's leader, Sultan Mahmoud Ghazi, is a cousin of the octogenarian former king, Mohammad Zaher Shah. The king has never backed Ghazi's movement, however, and insists he has no desire to return to the throne. Ghazi, who gave a press conference in the capital, said Karzai's government "has not been able to meet the needs of its people, above all on the issue of security."

Karzai's U.S.-backed administration has little influence outside Kabul, where private warlords, some elevated to the position of provincial governor, hold sway. Taliban insurgents have launched increasingly bold attacks in recent months, targeting government employees, Afghan soldiers and aid workers.

Ghazi said the government must do more to ensure that warlords don't hijack historic presidential elections scheduled for next June. The administration on Sunday passed an election law barring warlords from entering the race for president, but it was unclear how such a ban could be enforced.

Afghan officers protest dismissa
13 October, 2003, 13:39 GMT 14:39 UK
Several hundred former officers in the Afghan army have held another protest in Kabul against their dismissal, the third demonstration in the past month. They are demanding reinstatement in the army and the payment of wage arrears.

A BBC correspondent who witnessed the demonstration said it was more aggressive than previous ones, with banners and slogans condemning the defence ministry and the Afghan Government.

Correspondents say up to 20,000 army personnel have lost their jobs over the past month, in reforms aimed at establishing a professional army. From the newsroom of the BBC World Service

Afghans Suspend Prison Boss Over Taliban Breakout
By Mohammad Ismail Sameem
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The superintendent of an Afghan prison has been suspended after 41 Taliban prisoners, including some key commanders, made an audacious tunnel escape last week, police said Monday. Government officials said the Friday night escape from the main prison in the volatile southern city of Kandahar could not have been carried out without help of prison staff and a Taliban official said the group paid bribes to arrange the escape.

Kandahar police chief Mohammad Hashim told Reuters the superintendent of the prison and several staff members were being questioned and replacements brought to the prison pending the outcome of the investigation.

"No arrests have been made, nobody has been dismissed," he said. "We are questioning the superintendent along with several other people." Hashim said Sunday that none of the escapees had been recaptured. A Taliban commander, Mullah Sabir, told Reuters Sunday the group paid bribes of $2,000 to the prison authorities for each of the escapees. Hashim said he could not comment on the bribe claim until the investigation was complete.

The fugitives include Mawlavi Abdullah, the brother of former Taliban defense minister Obaidullah, and a senior commander named Aziz Agha.

Kandahar governor Yusuf Pashtun said the prisoners, who had been kept in chains, must have had assistance from prison officers as they had burrowed out an estimated 15 truckloads of earth to make their 30 meter (yard) tunnel. The dramatic escape was embarrassing for the government and personally for Pashtun, who only took up his post in August.

He said the escape showed the need to speed up efforts to reform the police force, which virtually disintegrated during the country's long civil war. It also presents yet another security headache. Kandahar province, which borders Pakistan, was the birthplace of the Taliban and has been the scene of many recent guerrilla attacks that have curtailed aid and reconstruction.

Kabul Cops Move Into Northern Afghan City
By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer
MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Afghanistan - Hundreds of police reinforcements poured into this northern Afghan city on Monday to help keep the peace won in a shaky truce between two feuding warlords. About 300 police from the capital, Kabul, took up positions in Mazar-e-Sharif, a token force but one that reinforces the government's commitment to stopping the on-again off-again battles between warlords Atta Mohammed and Abdul Rashid Dostum.

Several past agreements between the men — both ostensibly loyal to the government of President Hamid Karzai — have crumbled, and there were indications the most recent truce was under strain.

Gen. Abdul Sabur, a top commander and spokesman for Mohammed's side, said Dostum's men had attacked Mohammed's fighters in the Kohistanat district of Sari Pul province, about 170 miles southwest of Mazar-e-Sharif.

"Certainly this could harm the peace, and we will defend ourselves when attacked," Sabur told The Associated Press. He called for an investigation. Sabur said Dostum's men attacked late Sunday with rockets and heavy machine guns, but there was no word of any casualties. A spokesman for Dostum disputed the account, but said it was possible that some hostilities had broken out.

"I have no information of any fighting. If there is any it is small," said Gen. Syad Noorulla. It was impossible to independently verify either account. Dostum and Mohammed agreed to the truce last week after fierce fighting which at one stage came as close as 12 miles to Mazar-e-Sharif.

The United Nations said the fighting, which started Wednesday, left "high numbers of casualties." One of the two sides said the more than 60 died while the other said it was fewer. A second round of peace negotiations on Saturday extended the truce to Sari Pul and other northern Afghan provinces, not just the region around Mazar-e-Sharif, home to about 1.5 million people.

But implementation of the wider truce appeared to be faltering with allegations of fighting in Sari Pul. Numerous other truces between the two forces, which have been feuding for two years, have fallen apart and residents have expressed fears that this one will too.

"Three hundred police is nothing against 10,000 militiamen. What can they do against all these armed men?" said Hazizullah, a truck driver in Mazar-e-Sharif. Like many Afghans, he uses only one name. The latest fighting was believed to have been sparked by territorial disputes. The warring factions are both members of the Northern Alliance, which helped U.S.-led forces to topple the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001.

Karzai approves Afghanistan's new law on political parties
KABUL (AFP) - Afghan president Hamid Karzai has approved a law on political parties which bars armed groups and militant forces from setting up a political party. "The President approved the law on political parties yesterday (Saturday) and it will be made available to public in one week," Afghan justice minister Abdul Rahim Karimi told reporters on Sunday.

"Political parties shall not have military organizations or affiliations with armed force, receive funds from foreign sources, create a real danger to the rights and freedom of individuals or intentionally disrupt public order and security," indicates an article of the new party law.

"Political parties shall not pursue objectives that are opposed to the principles of the holy religion Islam, use force, or threaten with, or propagate, the use of force, incite to ethnic racial, religious or sectional violence," the text of the new law says.

Two years after fall of the Taliban, armed militias and Mujahideen factions remain the main political actors in Afghanistan. Jamiat-e-Islami a powerful hardline Mujahideen faction is planning to contest the upcoming elections next year as a political party.

Jamiat-e-Islami has deep influence in the Afghan transitional administration. The Afghan defense minister and most of other key military and security actors are active members of Jamiat-e-Islami. "The political system of the State of Afghanistan is based on the principles of democracy and pluralism of political parties," the new law says.

Judges, prosecutors, leading cadres of the armed forces, officers, non-commissioned officers, other military personnel, police officers, and personnel of national security, shall not be members of a political party during their tenure of office, the law says.

Based on the party law, adult Afghan citizens can freely establish a political party, irrespective of their ethnicity, race, language, tribe, sex, religion, education, occupation, lineage, assets and place of residence.

"All political parties shall be registered with the Ministry of Justice and parties with less than 700 members at the time of registration will not be registered," said the justice minister. Karimi said that political parties will not be allowed to receive funds from abroad, however, "political parties may receive income from membership contributions, donations by legal persons up to two million Afghani (41,666 dollars) per year."

Mujahideen factions often use forces for their private interests, with a firefight the major northern Afghan factions of Junbish and Jamiat militia earlier this week leaving 80 dead as two military commanders used arms to settle old scores. However, under the new law political parties can be disbanded if they use force.

"The dissolution of a political party shall not be ordered unless the party uses force, or threatens with the use of force or uses force to overthrow the legal order of the country, or the party has a military organization or affiliations with armed forces," Afghan information and culture minister Sayed Makhdoom Raheen who was also present at press conference told reporters.

"The dissolution of the party shall also be ordered if the party acts against the articles of the constitution or the parties law," Raheen added. The Supreme Court shall, upon the request of the Minister of Justice, dissolve a political party according to the articles of this law.

Meddling in Kabul's affairs opposed
Dawn October 13, 2003 issue
PESHAWAR, Oct 12: The Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party has urged the government not to interfere in Afghanistan's affairs and work for a lasting peace in that country. This was said by PkMAP chairman Mehmood Khan Achekzai while speaking to participants of a public meeting here on Sunday.
Dispelling the impression about every Pukhtun being an Al Qaeda activist, he accused the government of exploiting the issue for what he termed petty gains, portraying innocent people as Al Qaeda and Taliban men.

Criticizing the recent operation in the South Waziristan Agency, he said it was only a ploy to defame Pukhtuns living in tribal areas, adding that the people, who had been killed or arrested in the operation, had nothing to do with Al Qaeda network. Without being specific, he said that they had been pushed into the tribal area, enabling the government to exploit the ongoing situation in Afghanistan.

"I request religious leaders in Pakistan and Afghanistan as well as covert agencies ... to stop meddling in Afghanistan's internal affairs and work for a lasting peace," he said.

Rejecting the Indus Accord and criticizing the government over the construction of the Kalabagh dam, Mr Achekzai urge the government to abandoned its plans in this regard, adding that work should be initiated on projects that were acceptable to the four federating units.

Accusing the government of creating an atmosphere of fear to achieve its political objectives, he said that it was trying to divide the people, fanning religious extremism. Criticising the role of secret agencies in national politics, Mr Achekzai said that they should stop interfering in the affairs of the government, paving way for true democracy in the country.

Abdur Rahim Mandokhel, senior deputy chairman of PkMAP, accused the government of having struck a deal with foreign powers on the issue of Al Qaeda and Taliban. "This deal will wreak havoc on Pukhtuns living in Pakistan and Afghanistan," he said.

Leader of the Sindh Awami Tehrik Jalal Mehmood Shah described the bid to construct Kalabagh dam as being a conspiracy to usurp the natural resources of Sindh, saying it was strange that the government was reluctant to initiate work on Bhasha dam, which was acceptable to all, but was going ahead with as controversial a project as Kalabagh dam.

Leader of the Saraiki National Party M.A. Bota also criticized the construction of the Kalabagh Dam and the greater Thal canal besides lashing out at authorities for allotting lands to armymen in the Cholistan region. He said that they had been doled out land at a mere Rs300 per hectare on easy instalments to be paid in 20 years.
Others, who also spoke on the occasion, included PkMAP leader Afzal Khan Lala, its general secretary Bashir Matta and a leader of the Asian Students Union Yogendra Bahadur Sahi. Pakistan Muslim League-N's Arbab Abdul Aziz Khan also announced joining the PkMAP.

Tribesmen hand over two suspects
By Ismail Khan - Dawn October 13, 2003
PESHAWAR, Oct 12: The hitherto defiant tribes in the semi- autonomous South Waziristan tribal region are showing signs of buckling under pressure by handing over two of the 12 fellow tribesmen accused of sheltering Al Qaeda militants in their area.

Officials in the regional headquarters Wana told Dawn that Shudiaki, Malak Shahi, Khuniakhel and Sperkai tribes in Shkai tribal region handed over two fellow tribesmen to the authorities. Jumma Afzal and Shawa Khan of Malak Shahi and Khuniakhel sub-tribes of the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe surrendered to the administration to face questioning on sheltering Al Qaeda militants.

Officials said the tribes have agreed to surrender the remaining 10 suspects within two days. Among the suspects are two brothers who are said to be in Dera Ismail Khan and are expected to be handed over to the authorities on Monday.

"The tribesmen have shown their goodwill and we have decided to respond to them in positive vein. They have indicated that they are willing to play balls and so we have decided to put off the crackdown against tribes in Shkai for a while to wait and see if they are handing over the remaining accused on Monday. If they take one step, we are ready to take two", administrator South Waziristan, Mohammad Azam Khan said.

The administration in South Waziristan suspects native tribesmen in the hilly Shkai area are protecting and harbouring Al Qaeda militants in violation of May 11 agreement with the government that said that no foreigner would be allowed sanctuary.

Notices were served on 12 tribesmen to surrender and face questioning or face action under the Collective Responsibility clause of the 1940 British-era Frontier Crimes Regulation.

The law provides for arrest of members of erring tribe, seizure of their commercial movable and immovable property. Mr Azam said his administration as a goodwill gesture was suspending the operation against Shkai tribesmen.

"The only thing they wanted was guarantees that their fellow tribesmen would not be handed over to the Americans. And I have given them my word", he said. There, however, was no let up in the operation against Yargulkhel, Zalikhel-Qarikhel tribesmen who have so far failed to produce the three tribesmen accused of having sheltered Al Qaeda militants in Baghar village.

Eight people were killed and 18 others rounded up in a military operation against Al Qaeda militants in Baghar village early this month. Two Pakistani soldiers were also killed in the operation.

Officials said that the administration sealed a hotel of Yargulkhel tribe in Dera Ismail Khan while arresting five more tribesmen, taking to the total number of tribesmen under custody to 59. More shops and vehicles belonging to the tribes were seized and impounded under the FCR, the officials said. "This will go on until the tribes relent and give up the accused", the officials said.

NATO turns to non-members for help in stopping Afghan drug smuggling
BERN (AFP) Oct 13, 2003 -- NATO Secretary General George Robertson called Monday on the alliance's 27 partner countries to bolster activities in central Asia to help cut off drug trafficking routes from Afghanistan into Europe.

Robertson said after a meeting with Swiss government officials here that NATO wanted to "beef-up and strengthen" the partnership with the 27 countries in the Partnership for Peace.

Neutral Switzerland joined PFP in 1996, alongside east European and central Asian countries which are not in the military alliance, but the Swiss limit their contribution to logistical support for some peacekeeping operations.

Warning of the danger of increased drug trafficking or a renewed refugee exodus if peacekeeping efforts in Afghanistan fail, Robertson insisted that PFP members could help NATO tackle the crisis there without making a military contribution.

"One of the things we're looking at with active Swiss support is how we deal with border controls in the region," he told journalists, adding that NATO is looking to set up a PFP centre to train border guards in Tajikistan.

Swiss government officials said they wanted to bolster their role in the partnership. "We do have plans to be more active," Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey said. "Those are drug trafficking and heroin routes. Eighty percent of the heroin in Switzerland comes from Afghanistan," she added.

Switzerland, which provides military transport and logisitics for NATO-led peacekeeping efforts in the Balkans, has ruled out any military support for NATO's peacekeeping force in Kabul. "We have no possibilities to send Swiss troops to Afghanistan," Defence Minister Samuel Schmid said.

Key Muslim states reject US plea for help in Iraq
Monday October 13
PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia (AFP) - Key Muslim nations ruled out sending troops to help the United States in Iraq without a UN mandate, leaving Turkey isolated at the world's biggest gathering of Islamic states. Washington has asked Pakistan, Bangladesh and Turkey to deploy soldiers to ease the burden on US forces confronting mounting opposition in Iraq, but only Turkey has agreed.

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri told AFP his country did "not want to be perceived as an extension of the occupation force." Kasuri, who is attending a meeting of foreign ministers preparing for a summit Thursday of the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), said Pakistan would only despatch troops under a United Nations banner and if other Muslim nations agreed to participate. "So the minimum requirement after a UN resolution is that Pakistan does not go alone, that there are other Muslim countries and it will be much better if we are invited by some established Iraqi authority."

Kasuri said Pakistan had no plans to make a formal request for the OIC to send troops to Iraq as a collective effort but it would "talk informally to other Muslim countries" once a UN resolution was approved.

Bangladesh, a regular contributor of peacekeeping troops around the world, echoed Pakistan's position, with Foreign Minister Morshed Khan telling reporters here that his country would only send troops "if the UN gets a central role under the UN blue helmets."

And Jordan's King Abdullah II, who is due at the summit, said during a visit to Singapore Monday that no troops from Turkey or other neighbouring countries should be involved in Iraq. Abdullah said Iraq's neighbours were incapable of being "honest" if their military forces were sent in to help the United States conduct peacekeeping operations.

Turkey's decision to send up to 10,000 troops for a maximum of a year has already drawn fire from the US-appointed Governing Council in Iraq, which fears the presence of a neighbouring army could destabilise domestic politics.

An Arab diplomat attending the OIC conference said that while Turkey's decision was not formally on the table here, an overwhelming majority of states would oppose the deployment without a UN mandate. Instead, speakers at the opening session of the ministerial meeting pressed the US to commit itself to a specific timetable for the withdrawal of its forces from Iraq and a handover of control to the UN ahead of elections and independence.

This was one of three themes that dominated the session, along with fierce condemnation of Israel and anger over the treatment of Muslim states since the September 11 terror attacks on the US. A special resolution condemning Israel for its strike on an alleged militant base in Syria a week ago is being prepared, with Malaysia's Foreign Minister calling the attack "provocative, arrogant and dangerous."

OIC secretary general Abdelouahed Belkeziz, turning to the upheaval in global politics since the attacks on the US, said the summit came at a time of "challenges and dangers unprecedented in the contemporary history of the Islamic nation." "Islam itself is being accused in its culture, civilisation and speech.

"Muslims are filled with feelings of impotence and frustration as some of their countries are occupied, others are under sanctions, a third group threatened and a fourth group accused of sponsoring terrorism." The conference, the biggest Islamic gathering since 9/11, is taking place amid tight security in Malaysia's new administrative capital of Putrajaya south of Kuala Lumpur.

AFGHANISTAN: UNHCR Turkmenistan ends humanitarian deliveries
ANKARA, 13 October (IRIN) - The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has dispatched its last humanitarian consignment to Afghanistan via Turkmenistan.

"This marks the end of a very successful cross-border humanitarian assistance programme," Ruven Menikdiwela, the agency's head of office in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat, told IRIN on Friday. "We particularly want to thank the Turkmen authorities for making it the success that it was."

According to the UNHCR official, following the initial downfall of the Taliban regime in December 2001, Turkmenistan, sharing a 744-km border with Afghanistan, proved an invaluable logistics hub in dispatching tonnes of much-needed food and non-food related assistance to the north of the country.

Since October 2001, UNHCR Turkmenistan has dispatched some 500 mt of non-food related assistance through its southern border, including considerable quantities of tents, jerry cans, blankets, sleeping bags, cooking stoves and plastic sheeting destined for returning Afghan refugees.

Asked why the programme was winding down, Menikdiwela remarked: "They are now getting most of their non-food related aid through Iran and Pakistan. We [UNHCR Turkmenistan] have become less significant an operation."

The two trucks carrying UNHCR's last humanitarian shipment from
Turkmenistan crossed the border on Sunday after a three-day delay at the border occasioned by security concerns in the north of Afghanistan. "The trucking company had been instructed not to proceed until the situation becomes much clearer," the UNHCR official said, adding that she expected the trucks to arrive in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif within the next five days.

UNHCR Turkmenistan continues to work with a number of refugee projects in the health sector, including the provision of medical kits and ambulances, the upgrading of medical clinics in rural areas, and reproductive health training for refugees and their peers. Of the estimated 14,000 refugees currently found in the Central Asian state, the vast majority are from Tajikistan, with some 1,000 ethnic Turkmen from Afghanistan.

Iran opens culture council office in Afghan capital
Afghanistan Television, 11 Oct 03
The cultural council office of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran opened in Kabul today. Bakhtar Information Agency reports that this office plans to convene cultural meetings, pave the way for appearances by cultural personalities and introducing the two countries to each other's cultures.

Three Arab nationals said killed on Pakistan-Afghan border
Wahdat, Peshawar, 11 Oct 03 p 1
Peshawar: Three Arab nationals including an Egyptian, Abu Abdur Rehman, whose two sons were arrested by US forces in Afghanistan and shifted to Guantanamo Bay, has been killed by Pakistani commandos in their continuing operation in South Waziristan tribal belt on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The other Arab nationals killed included a close aide of Abu Abdul Rehman and a Palestinian, Abu Al-Harit Jofi, who was killed after he refused to surrender before Pakistani officials.

Abu Abdur Rehman's real name was Ahmad Saeed Khizar, and he was a Canadian passport holder and lived in Peshawar, Jalalabad and Kabul during the last 12 years. He was chief of Human Concern International, a relief agency supported by the Canadian government and people. Pakistani officials arrested him in 1995 on charges of a bomb blast at the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad in which 33 people were killed. He was later released on bail after intervention by the Canadian prime minister. He used to link himself with Al-Qa'idah, but the network chief, Usamah Bin-Ladin, denied all such claims, saying he had nothing to do with his network. One of his sons was arrested by the Northern Alliance troops at the time of collapse of Taleban, and he is reportedly in detention at Bagram Air Base.

Afghan secret agency allegedly kidnaps four Pakistani traders
Source: Dawn web site, Karachi, in English 12 Oct 03
Quetta, 11 October: Afghan secret agency Khad has kidnapped four Karachi-based Pakistani traders from Wash in Spin Boldak district of Afghanistan and demanded Rs200,000 as ransom for their release , a senior Pakistani border security official said on Saturday [11 October]. Their vehicles have also been impounded.

The businessmen - Mohammad Irfan, Mansoor Ahmed, Mohammad Rehan and Mohammad Rahim - have been taken to Kandahar. Afghan authorities claimed that they were government servants and some important documents were recovered from their possession. However, a Pakistani official refuted the claim.

Afghan officials later allowed one businessman Mohammad Rahim to go [to] Chaman and arrange Rs200,000 for the release of three other Pakistanis.

A spokesman for the Pakistani border security force told Dawn that Pakistani border officials wrote a letter to Syed Fazal Din Agha, deputy commissioner of Spin Boldak, and asked him to take action against those officials who kidnapped the Pakistani traders for ransom and release them.

Leaders of Pakistan Islamist parties comment on border operation
Wana: Leader of the Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam Samiul Haq Group [JUI-S], Maulana Noor Mohammad, has said that the Pakistan army has the right to carry out an operation on its territory. We respect the army. The Afghan refugees staying here are the root cause of the whole problem. Agents of the Northern Alliance, the United States, and India are present in their ranks and they frequently create problems for Pakistan.

Maulana Abdur Rahman of the Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam Fazlur Rahman Group [JUI-F] said that it [operation] was a heavy blow on our sovereignty and territorial integrity. This operation is being carried out under the US pressure. Our western border has become unsafe due to Gen Pervez Musharraf's policies. Social figure Mohammad Ali Wazir said that such a situation has cropped up due to the ban imposed by the administration on political activities in tribal areas. Khabrain, Islamabad, in Urdu 12 Oct 03 pp 1,7